The negotiations focused on freeing Edan Alexander, the only American Israeli hostage still believed to be alive, and the bodies of four other U.S.-Israeli dual citizens who were kidnapped and taken to Gaza in the October 2023 attack, officials told The New York Times.

With the current ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas stalled, Arab leaders say they have a plan to rebuild Gaza. The proposal has several built-in challenges, and reactions so far are mixed.

When Israel signed a ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza on January 15, the agreement was structured in three phases. Phase one, a six-week period in which Hamas would release hostages in return for Israel releasing Palestinians detained in its jails, ended on March 1.

Top command was unaware regional division was not functioning for nearly 10 hours during onslaught; army failed to build a picture of the situation, backup didn't reach the right areas

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that his country’s military is preparing to occupy the Gaza Strip under the leadership of the newly appointed Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir, in coordination with US President Donald Trump’s administration.

With the first phase of the truce set to expire Saturday, Hamas on Wednesday turned over the bodies of four hostages and Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

The plan is to conquer the entire Gaza Strip in one fell swoop with more than 50,000 soldiers, relocating the civilian population to humanitarian zones, and waging a “ruthless ground campaign” in terrorist-heavy areas that will receive no humanitarian aid, the report suggests.