Gaza: Hamas frees Edan Alexander as food monitor warns of mass starvation

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US President Donald Trump said Monday he was considering offering sanctions relief to Syria as it seeks to rebuild after a grinding decade-plus civil war.

"We are going to have to make a decision on the sanctions, which we may very well relieve. We may take them off of Syria because we want to give them a fresh start," Trump told journalists at the White House prior to departing on a trip to the Middle East.

(AFP)

Hamas has called on the Trump administration to "continue its efforts" to end the war in Gaza, after the militant group said it handed over US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander.

"We affirm that serious and responsible negotiations yield results in the release of prisoners" and "urge President Trump's administration to continue its efforts to end this brutal war", Hamas said in a statement.

Hamas' armed wing has released US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander to the Red Cross in Khan Younis in south Gaza.

"The Al-Qassam Brigades have just released the Zionist soldier and American citizen Edan Alexander, following contacts with the US administration, as part of the efforts undertaken by mediators to achieve a ceasefire," the Palestinian group said in a statement.

A Red Cross team is on its way to collect US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander in Gaza, according to Israeli media.

Alexander will be handed over to the Israeli military inside Gaza and from there will be taken to the Re’im base in Israel.

Israel's security cabinet will meet tonight following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's discussions with US president Donald Trump and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Israeli media is reporting.

Trump is said to be exerting pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza during his trip to the Middle East this week.

Israel is due to send a negotiating team to Qatar tomorrow for ceasefire talks.

The Israeli government has said that it will dramatically escalate its war on Gaza and "conquer" the territory if there is no breakthrough in the talks by the time Trump leaves the region on Friday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday with Donald Trump after meeting with the US president's Middle East envoy and ambassador to Israel, Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

Netanyahu thanked Trump for his assistance with the expected release of Israeli-American prisoner Edan Alexander, who has been held by Hamas in Gaza, the statement said.

(Reuters)

Some global airlines have again halted their flights to and from Tel Aviv after a missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels towards Israel on May 4 landed near the country's main international airport.

Foreign airlines had begun to resume flights to Israel after a ceasefire deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas in January. Many carriers had halted them for much of the last year and a half since October 7, 2023.

Below are carriers that have again cancelled their flights after the Houthi attack:

AEGEAN AIRLINES

The Greek airline said it would cancel its flights to Tel Aviv until May 16 as well as the early morning flight on May 17.

AIRBALTIC

Latvia's airBaltic said it had cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv until May 20.

AIR FRANCE-KLM

The group's Dutch arm KLM suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until May 30.

AIR INDIA

The Indian flag carrier said that flights to and from Tel Aviv would remain suspended until May 25.

DELTA AIR LINES

The U.S. carrier said its flights to and from Tel Aviv may be impacted between May 4 and May 25.

IAG

IAG-owned British Airways has suspended flights to Tel Aviv until May 14. IAG's low-cost airline, Iberia Express, has cancelled flights to Tel Aviv until May 31.

ITA AIRWAYS

The Italian carrier has suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until May 18, as well as two flights scheduled for May 19.

LOT

The Polish carrier has suspended flights to Tel Aviv until May 14.

LUFTHANSA GROUP

The German airline group has suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv through May 18.

RYANAIR

Europe's biggest budget airline has cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv until May 21.

UNITED AIRLINES

The Chicago-based airline said its flights to and from Tel Aviv may be impacted between May 4 and May 18.

WIZZ AIR

The Hungary-based airline has cancelled its flights to Tel Aviv until May 14.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would send mediators to Qatar on Tuesday to discuss the release of captives held in Gaza after Hamas announced the release of US-Israeli Edan Alexander.

Following a meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff and ambassador Mike Huckabee, "the Prime Minister instructed to send a negotiation delegation to Doha tomorrow", Netanyahu's office said in a statement Monday.

A source close to Hamas told AFP the handover of US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander, who has been held in Gaza since October 2023, would "most likely" take place after 1400 GMT on Monday.

"The Red Cross has been informed of the scheduled time and specific location for the handover of the Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander. The handover will most likely take place after 5 pm (1400 GMT) today, and the location is expected to be in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip," the source said.

Hundreds of Palestinian Red Crescent staff marched in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday to protest the killing of medical workers in Gaza over the past 19 months of war.

The demonstration marked World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, usually observed on May 8, and called for the "protection for medical and humanitarian workers".

In a statement released Monday, the Red Crescent said 48 of their staff members have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank since the war began on October 7, 2023 - including 30 who "were killed while performing their humanitarian duty wearing the Red Crescent emblem".

Protesters carried symbolic white shrouds bearing the names and pictures of the dead, as well as signs demanding the release of three staff members who have been detained by the Israeli army for over a year.

خاص/ تسنيم.. مظاهرة حاشدة في رام الله تطالب بالإفراج عن مسعفي الهلال المعتقلين pic.twitter.com/VIMAUVwA4t

— وكالة تسنيم للأنباء (@Tasnimarabic) May 12, 2025

The situation in Syria could pose security risks for Europe, according to a draft internal European Union counterterrorism document seen by Reuters which warned that the terror threat level in the bloc remains high.

"Terrorism and violent extremism continue to pose a significant threat to the European Union and its Member States. The overall threat level remains high," the document said.

"Developments in the security situation in Syria could lead to the resurgence of jihadist groups in the region either with a risk of departure from Syrian territory, possibly to Europe, or through the remote activation of jihadists on the European continent," it added.

Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, will not attend an upcoming Arab League summit in Baghdad, an Arab diplomatic source said Monday, as powerful Iraqi politicians have rejected hosting a former jihadist leader.

The Iraqi government has invited Sharaa for the meeting planned for Saturday, but he "will not attend the Arab Summit", the diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Instead, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani will lead the Syrian delegation.

Several powerful Iraqi politicians have voiced opposition to Sharaa's planned visit to Iraq.

They include former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, a leading member of Iraq's main pro-Iran coalition that holds a parliamentary majority.

Israeli media is reporting that Edan Alexander, the US-Israeli prisoner expected to be released today, will travel to Qatar after he leaves Gaza.

He will reportedly meet with the Qatari emir and US President Donald Trump, who will travel to the region later this week.

The war on Hamas must not stop and aid should not be let into Gaza, Israel's far right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Monday, amid speculation in Israel that the deal to release US captive Edan Alexander could lead to a new ceasefire.

In broadcast remarks from the Israeli parliament, Ben-Gvir said defeating Hamas was the top goal of the war and the only way to secure the release of Israeli prisoners from Gaza. 

(Reuters and TNA staff)

Qatar has offered to donate a plane to the United States and details are still being worked out, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.

"The Qatari Government has graciously offered to donate a plane to the Department of Defense. The legal details of that are still being worked out," Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News.

(Reuters)

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, has sold all of its shares in Israel's Paz Retail and Energy because it owns and operates infrastructure for the supply of fuel to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The divestment, announced on Sunday, is the second after the fund's ethics watchdog, the Council on Ethics, adopted in August a tougher interpretation of ethics standards for businesses that aid Israel's operations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The first divestment was from Israeli telecoms firm Bezeq, in December.

Israel has asked judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to withdraw arrest warrants against its prime minister and former defence minister while the ICC reviews Israeli challenges to its jurisdiction over the conduct of the Gaza war.

Documents published on the ICC website late on Sunday also show Israel has asked the court to order the prosecution to suspend its investigation into alleged atrocity crimes in the Palestinian Territories.

The ICC issued arrest warrants on 21 November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

At least 29 people have been killed in Gaza over the past 24 hours as the Israeli military continues its relentless assault on the Palestinian territory.

Hospitals received 33 bodies, four of which were recovered  from the rubble, Gaza's health ministry said this morning.

Another 94 people have been injured, it said.

The overall death toll during Israel's 19-month war on Gaza has risen to 52,862, according to the ministry's latest tally.

The entire population of Gaza continues to face a critical risk of famine, and half a million people face starvation, a global hunger monitor said on Monday, calling this a major deterioration since its last report in October.

The latest assessment by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysed a period from 1 April to 10 May this year, and gave projections of the situation until the end of September, according to a summary of its key findings.

(Reuters)

The number of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza on Monday has risen to 20, according Al Jazeera Arabic, citing medical sources.

The president of Iraq's Kurdistan region, Nechirvan Barzani, welcomed Monday the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) decision to disband and end its armed struggle against Turkey, saying it would strengthen regional stability.

The PKK decision "demonstrates political maturity and paves the way for a dialogue that promotes coexistence and stability in Turkey and the region", Barzani said in a statement, adding that it "lays the foundation for a lasting peace that would end decades of violence, pain and suffering".

(AFP)

Egypt and Qatar welcomed on Sunday an announcement by Hamas that it would release US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander from Gaza, as part of direct talks with the United States towards a ceasefire.

In a joint statement, the countries, who along with the US have mediated talks between Hamas and Israel, called it "a gesture of goodwill and an encouraging step toward a return to the negotiating table to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the release of prisoners and detainees, and ensure the safe and unhindered flow of aid to address the tragic conditions in the strip".

(AFP and TNA staff)

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Monday announced its dissolution, saying it was ending its armed struggle against the Turkish state and drawing a line under its deadly four-decade insurgency.

Founded in the late 1970s by Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK took up arms in 1984, beginning a string of attacks against the Turkish state that would cost more than 40,000 lives.

"The 12th PKK Congress has decided to dissolve the PKK's organisational structure and end its method of armed struggle," the group said in a statement published by the pro-Kurdish ANF news agency.

The move was welcomed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP party as an "important step", but it warned the process would be "meticulously monitored" by the government.

(AFP)

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday said calls by US officials for Iran to dismantle its nuclear facilities are "unacceptable" following the fourth round of nuclear talks in Oman.

"The discussion that has been raised about dismantling Iran's entire nuclear facilities is unacceptable to us," he said, adding that "Iran will not give up its peaceful nuclear rights".

(AFP and TNA staff)

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will arrive in Israel on Monday ahead of the release of US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander.

Witkoff will hold talks with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.

A Hamas source told AFP on Monday that mediators informed the Palestinian group that Israel would pause military operations in Gaza for the handover of US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander.

"Hamas was informed that at exactly 9:30 am, Israel began halting its reconnaissance, drone, and warplane flights, as well as combat operations, to create a safe corridor for the transfer and handover of Edan," the source said.

(AFP)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out agreeing to a ceasefire in exchange for the release of US-Israeli prisoner Edan Alexander, who will be freed by Hamas later today.

"Israel has not committed to a ceasefire of any kind or the release of terrorists but only to a safe corridor that will allow for the release of Edan", Netanyahu said.

Hamas has confirmed it will release US captive Edan Alexander later today following an agreement with the US announced Sunday.

Israeli media is reporting that the military is making preparations for a brief ceasefire while the prisoner is handed over to the Red Cross and escorted out of Gaza.

Israeli forces have killed 15 Palestinians in an attack on a girls school in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera Arabic reported this morning, citing medical sources on the ground.

A number of other people were wounded in the strike.

The attack takes Monday's death toll in Gaza to 17.