Hamas on Saturday released four female Israeli soldiers held hostage in the Gaza Strip, in a choreographed ceremony that was the latest sign of the group’s effort to project power despite Israel’s 470-day military campaign to dislodge them. It was the second release of hostages as part of a cease-fire deal that went into effect […]

Mike Hynson, who epitomized the image of the bronzed surf god as a star of the hit 1966 surfing documentary “The Endless Summer” and, with his outlaw instincts, embodied the rebel ethos of the sport on his way to being hailed a colossus of the curl, died on Jan. 10 in Encinitas, Calif. He was […]

A sudden and sweeping halt to U.S. foreign aid by the Trump administration does not apply to weapons support to Israel and Egypt and emergency food assistance, according to a memo issued by the department to bureaus and U.S. missions overseas on Friday. The same day, the White House told the Pentagon it could proceed […]

Nasir, a legal adviser to the Afghan Air Force during the war, helped approve airstrikes against Taliban fighters. He is still in Afghanistan, where he has lived in hiding since the Taliban takeover in 2021 while awaiting approval to resettle in the United States. He had passed background checks and needed only a medical exam […]

Displaced Palestinians in southern and central Gaza were left wondering on Saturday when Israel would permit them to return to their homes in the northern part of the territory, as Israel and Hamas sparred over the implementation of the cease-fire deal. The Israeli prime minister’s office said Israel would prevent movement to the north of […]

Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday in exchange for four soldiers who were being held hostage by Hamas. Dozens of the prisoners had been serving life sentences in Israeli jails for attacks against Israelis. The Israeli prison service said in a statement that the prisoners had been released from Ofer Prison near the city […]

In a recent interview with an Israeli TV station, Chen Goldstein-Almog, an Israeli hostage released in November 2023, said that when she and her daughter, Agam, were let go, they were transferred to a Red Cross vehicle that was surrounded by a large crowd of people. “I remember that Agam told me: ‘Mom, today we’re […]

A Quebec law that critics say unjustly targets Muslim, Jewish and Sikh people will be challenged at Canada’s Supreme Court, reigniting a sweeping debate over the province’s brand of secularism. The law, known in Quebec as Bill 21, bars civil servants like teachers, prosecutors and police officers from wearing, while at work, the garments or […]

Hamas released four female Israeli army soldiers on Saturday as part of a hostage-for-prisoner exchange, more than a year after the women were taken captive during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that started the war. In a choreographed release, the four hostages wore military-style fatigues as they walked onto a […]

The Israeli Army lookouts were monitoring Hamas in Gaza across a security fence from a base in southern Israel. As it turned out, Hamas was also watching them. The four women released by Hamas on Saturday after more than 15 months in captivity in Gaza are “spotters” for the army who were stationed in a […]