Israel-Hamas war: IDF pulls most troops from southern Gaza

Israeli troops that pulled out of southern Gaza on Sunday did so to prepare for future operations, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.

Those operations include the planned ground assault on Rafah, he added in a statement from his office.

"The forces are exiting and preparing for their next missions, we saw examples of such missions in the al-Shifa operation, and also of their coming mission in the Rafah area," Gallant said at a meeting with military officials.

Israel's military said early Sunday that it had pulled most of its troops out of southern Gaza, leaving just one brigade in the Hamas-run territory.

Israel has been warned by several allies, including the United States and Germany, against launching an offensive in Rafah due to a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

More than a million Gaza residents have been displaced to Rafah, one of the last safe places in the strip.

Israelis rally for return of hostages after 6 months in captivity

Thousands of protesters rallied outside the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem on Sunday, demanding the release of around 130 hostages still held in Gaza after six months of Israel's war against Hamas.

When Hamas gunmen burst into southern Israel on October 7, they killed around 1,200 people and seized 253 hostages.

Around half of them remain captive while the rest were released as part of a short cease-fire deal in late November.

Relatives of the hostages have grown frustrated by the lack of progress towards a fresh truce, which could include the release of the remaining hostages.

Some relatives called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do more to bring home the hostages.

Many Israelis believe the veteran leader has been dragging his feet in securing a deal, which he strongly denies.

"Their families and everybody here has had enough," said protester Michal Nachshon. "People need to understand that and the world needs to stand up and get them back ... it's a humanitarian issue and that's what we're here to shout today."

Also Sunday, weeping relatives gathered at the site of a music festival in southern Israel where more than 300 people were killed by Hamas militants on October 7.

No Israeli embassy is safe, Iranian official warns

An advisor to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed retaliation for the bombing of the country's embassy in Syria, which was been blamed on Israel.

General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a former commander of Iran's elite army forces, warned that Israeli diplomatic missions could become targets for attack.

"The [anti-Israeli] resistance front is ready for all possible retaliation scenarios and no Israeli embassy worldwide is safe from it," Safavi was cited by state broadcaster Al-Alam as saying.

Despite his comments, many analysts in Iran consider an attack on Israeli embassies to be unlikely.

The airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus killed two generals and five officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Israel's military has not claimed responsibility for the strike but says the compound was not a civilian embassy.

Aid agencies denounce 'shocking toll' after 6 months of Gaza war

Aid agencies have described Gaza as "beyond catastrophic" after six months of war between Israel and Hamas.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,175 people in the territory, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.     

"Six months is an awful milestone," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said, warning that "humanity has been all but abandoned."

UNICEF chief Catherine Russell pointed out that more than 13,000 children were reportedly among those killed.

"Homes, schools and hospitals in ruin. Teachers, doctors and humanitarians killed. Famine is imminent," she said on X on Saturday." The level and speed of destruction are shocking. Children need a cease-fire NOW."

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the October 7 attack on Israel "does not justify the horrific ongoing bombardment, siege and health system demolition by Israel in Gaza, killing, injuring and starving hundreds of thousands of civilians, including aid workers."

The UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths insisted Saturday that there needed to be "a reckoning for this betrayal of humanity."

Israel's leadership vowed to destroy Hamas — considered a terrorist organization by the US, the EU and other governments — following the large-scale terror attacks it launched on October 7 in which around 1,200 people were killed and some 250 were taken hostage.

Since then, Israel's military has been engaged in an intensive ground offensive that has seen expanded military action across the Palestinian territory.

Netanyahu: Israel 'a step away from victory'

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was "one step away from victory" in the Gaza war and vowed there would be no truce until Hamas releases all hostages.

He was speaking in a cabinet meeting marking six months of the war that broke out with the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7.

"We are one step away from victory," Netanyahu said. "But the price we paid is painful and heartbreaking."

Speaking as truce talks were expected to resume in Cairo with international mediators, he said: "There will be no cease-fire without the return of hostages. It just won't happen."

He called for international pressure to be directed against Hamas rather than Israel to end the war.

Israel has faced stiff criticism for the humanitarian crisis caused by its offensive against Hamas in Gaza. There was further outrage over the killing of seven aid workers in an airstrike on April 1.