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Iranian Guards Adviser Killed in Israeli Strike on Damascus

Israeli soldiers operate in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near the border with Syria, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, December 28, 2023. REUTERS/Gil Eliyahu
Israeli soldiers operate in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near the border with Syria, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, December 28, 2023. REUTERS/Gil Eliyahu
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Iranian Guards Adviser Killed in Israeli Strike on Damascus

Israeli soldiers operate in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near the border with Syria, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, December 28, 2023. REUTERS/Gil Eliyahu
Israeli soldiers operate in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near the border with Syria, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, December 28, 2023. REUTERS/Gil Eliyahu

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards adviser in Damascus was killed on Friday in an Israeli missile strike that targeted a southern district of the Syrian capital, semi-official Iranian news sites reported.
Earlier, Syria's state news agency SANA, citing a Syrian military source, said the country's military had downed a number of Israeli missiles launched from the Golan Heights at southern Damascus.
The Iranian news sites identified the dead man as Saeid Alidadi. They did not give his rank.
Asked about the strikes, Israel's military said it did not comment on reports in foreign media.
Israel has for years carried out attacks on what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran's influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that started in 2011.
Since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian group Hamas from Gaza, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defenses and some Syrian forces.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards have started scaling back deployment of their senior officers in Syria due to concerns about Tehran being sucked into a wider regional conflict, sources have told Reuters.
The Guards will instead rely more on allied Shi'ite militia to preserve their sway there, the sources said.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi told a crowd on Friday that his country would not start a war in the region but would "respond strongly" to anyone who tried to bully it.
Raisi's comments came after days of speculation about how Washington might retaliate after three US soldiers were killed last Saturday in a strike on their base in Jordan by an Iranian-backed group.
CBS News, citing US officials, reported on Thursday that the United States had approved plans for multi-day strikes in Iraq and Syria against multiple targets, including Iranian personnel and facilities in those countries.

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Arab World

Hamas Official Says Group Open to Freeing Hostages, Five-Year Truce in Gaza

08 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: Fighter of the Ezzeddine al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas hand over Israeli Hostages Or Levy (R), Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in the fifth batch of the first phase of the ceasefire exchange deal. (dpa)
08 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: Fighter of the Ezzeddine al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas hand over Israeli Hostages Or Levy (R), Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in the fifth batch of the first phase of the ceasefire exchange deal. (dpa)
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Hamas Official Says Group Open to Freeing Hostages, Five-Year Truce in Gaza

08 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: Fighter of the Ezzeddine al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas hand over Israeli Hostages Or Levy (R), Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in the fifth batch of the first phase of the ceasefire exchange deal. (dpa)
08 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: Fighter of the Ezzeddine al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas hand over Israeli Hostages Or Levy (R), Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in the fifth batch of the first phase of the ceasefire exchange deal. (dpa)

Hamas is open to an agreement to end the Gaza war that would include the one-time release of all remaining hostages and a five-year cessation of hostilities, an official from the Palestinian group said Saturday.

"Hamas is ready for an exchange of prisoners in a single batch and a truce for five years," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, as a delegation from his group was set to meet mediators in Cairo later in the day.

On April 17, Hamas, which opposes a "partial" ceasefire agreement, rejected an Israeli proposal that included a 45-day truce in exchange for the return of 10 living hostages.

The group has consistently demanded that a truce agreement must lead to the end of the war, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a prisoner exchange, and the immediate and sufficient entry of humanitarian aid into the war-battered Palestinian territory.

Israel, for its part, demands the return of all hostages and the disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza -- the latter being a "red line" for the movement.

The war was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the death of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures.

Of the 251 people taken hostage that day, 58 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 who are dead, according to the Israeli army.

A truce from January 19 to March 17 allowed the return of 33 hostages to Israel, including eight who were deceased, in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

According to figures published by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, at least 2,062 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli offensive resumed on March 18, bringing the total death toll in Gaza to 51,439 since the start of the war.