GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed into the most heavily destroyed part of the Gaza Strip on Monday as Israel lifted its closure of the north for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas in accordance with a fragile ceasefire.

OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) — The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops is being marked on Monday at the site of the former death camp, a ceremony that is widely being treated as the last major observance that any notable number of survivors will be able to attend.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Qatar announced early Monday that an agreement had been reached to release an Israeli civilian hostage and allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, easing the first major crisis of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Rwanda-backed rebels claimed they captured eastern Congo’s largest city, Goma, early Monday, as the United Nations described a “mass panic” among its 2 million people and Congo’s government said the rebel advance was a “declaration of war.”

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia on Sunday claimed its troops had captured a strategically important town in eastern Ukraine as part of a grinding campaign to weaken Kyiv’s grip on the country’s industrial heartland, while uncertainty over the continued flow of U.S. funding has reportedly halted the work of some Ukrainian NGOs, including those helping war veterans.

HAIFA, Israel (AP) — Naftali Fürst will never forget his first view of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, on Nov. 3, 1944. He was 12 years old.

LONDON (AP) — A London judge on Friday rejected a U.S. mother's challenge to her extradition to face murder charges in Colorado in the deaths of two of her young children.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Hamas announced Friday that it would release four female soldiers held hostage for 15 months in Gaza, as part of an exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners laid out in its ceasefire agreement with Israel. An advocacy group representing the families of hostages confirmed the identities of the captive Israelis to be released on Saturday.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Relatives of hostages still being held by militants in Gaza called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday to ensure all remaining captives are freed, while also appealing to U.S. President Donald Trump to continue pressing for their release.

The last time Belarus staged a presidential election in 2020, authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner with 80% of the vote. That triggered cries of fraud, months of protests and a harsh crackdown with thousands of arrests.

LONDON (AP) — A teenager who stabbed three young girls to death at a dance class in England was sentenced Thursday to more than 50 years in prison for what a judge called “the most extreme, shocking and exceptionally serious crime.”

Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian terrorists who carried out a deadly attack on a bus in the West Bank earlier this month.

NAWA, Syria (AP) — As insurgents raced across Syria in a surprise offensive launched in the country's northwest late last year, officials from several countries backing either the rebels or Syria’s government met in Qatar on what to do.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian rescuers retrieved two more bodies after they resumed their search Wednesday for people missing after floods and landslides on Indonesia’s main island of Java, bringing the death toll to 19.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A fire at a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday killed at least 66 people, Turkey's Interior Minister said.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan's Taliban freed two Americans in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges, officials said Tuesday.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's top general resigned on Tuesday, citing the security and intelligence failures related to Hamas' surprise attack that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip. Israel meanwhile launched a large operation in the occupied West Bank, killing at least six people, according to Palestinian officials.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — After 15 months of collective grief and anxiety, three Israeli hostages left terrorist captivity and returned to Israel, and dozens of Palestinian prisoners walked free from Israeli jail, leaving both Israelis and Palestinians torn between celebration and trepidation as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold Sunday.

CAIRO (AP) — The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel will go into effect Sunday at 8:30 a.m. local time, mediator Qatar announced Saturday, as families of hostages held in Gaza braced for news of loved ones, Palestinians prepared to receive freed detainees and humanitarian groups rushed to set up a surge of aid.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday a deal to return hostages held in the Gaza Strip has been reached, after his office said earlier there were last-minute snags in finalizing a ceasefire that would pause 15 months of war.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a last-minute dispute with Hamas, designated a terror organization by the U.S., was holding up Israeli approval of a long-awaited ceasefire that would pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip and release dozens of hostages. 

STILFONTEIN, South Africa (AP) — The death toll in a monthslong standoff between police and miners trapped while working illegally in an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87, police said Thursday.

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Israel and Hamas have agreed to pause the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, mediators announced Wednesday, raising the possibility of winding down the deadliest and most destructive fighting between the bitter enemies.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was sent to a detention center near Seoul on Wednesday night, after being questioned by anti-corruption officials who took him into custody over his imposition of martial law last month.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused Russia on Wednesday of planning acts of sabotage worldwide that included “acts of air terror” against airlines.