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GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Gaza rescuers said at least 80 people were killed in Israeli bombardment across the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to US envoy Steve Witkoff about the release of hostages.

Negotiations for the release of the captives held in Gaza have been ongoing, with the latest talks taking place in the Qatari capital Doha, where US President Donald Trump was visiting on Wednesday.

Netanyahu's office said the premier had discussed with Witkoff and his negotiating team "the issue of the hostages and the missing".

Witkoff later said Trump had "a really productive conversation" with the Qatari emir about a Gaza deal, adding that "we are moving along and we have a good plan together".

Fighting meanwhile raged in Gaza, where civil defence official Mohammed Al Mughayyir told AFP 80 people had been killed by Israeli bombardment since dawn, including 59 in the north.

AFP footage from the aftermath of a strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza, showed mounds of rubble and twisted metal from collapsed buildings. Palestinians, including young children, picked through the debris in search of belongings.

Footage of mourners in northern Gaza showed women in tears as they kneeled next to bodies wrapped in bloodstained white shrouds.

"It's a nine-month-old baby. What did he do?" one of them cried out.

Hasan Moqbel, a Palestinian who lost relatives, told AFP: "There are no homes fit for living. I have no shelter, no food, no water. Those who don't die from air strikes die from hunger, and those who don't die from hunger die from lack of medicine."

Israel's military on Wednesday urged residents in part of a Gaza City neighbourhood to evacuate, warning that its forces would "attack the area with intense force".

'Unjustifiable'

From the occupied West Bank, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Wednesday he favoured a "ceasefire at any price" in Gaza, accusing Netanyahu of wanting to continue the war "for his own reasons".

Mohammad Awad, an emergency doctor in northern Gaza's Indonesian Hospital, told AFP that supply shortages meant his department could not properly handle the flow of wounded from the Jabalia strike.

"There are not enough beds, no medicine, and no means for surgical or medical treatment, which leaves doctors unable to save many of the injured who are dying due to lack of care", he said.

Awad added that "the bodies of the martyrs are lying on the ground in the hospital corridors after the morgue reached full capacity. The situation is catastrophic in every sense of the word".

Israel imposed an aid blockade on the Gaza Strip on March 2 after talks to prolong a January 19 ceasefire broke down.

The resulting shortages of food and medicine have aggravated an already dire situation in the Palestinian territory, although Israel has dismissed UN warnings that a potential famine looms.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, unimpeded humanitarian access and an immediate cessation of hostilities", in Gaza.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was "ever more dramatic and unjustifiable".

A US-led initiative for aid distribution under Israeli military security drew international criticism as it appears to sideline the United Nations and existing aid organisations, and would overhaul current humanitarian structures in Gaza.

'Full force'

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said the plan would make "aid conditional on forced displacement" and vetting of the population.

It added in a statement that Israel was creating "conditions for the eradication of Palestinian lives in Gaza".

Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18, with officials later talking of retaining a long-term presence in the Palestinian territory.

Following a short pause in air strikes during the release of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander on Monday, Israel resumed its pounding of Gaza.

Netanyahu said on Monday that the military would enter Gaza "with full force" in the coming days.

He added that his government was working to find countries willing to take in Gaza's population.

The Israeli government approved plans to expand the offensive earlier this month, and spoke of the "conquest" of Gaza.

Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas's October 2023 attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 52,928 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.

KHARTOUM — Around 1,000 critically ill patients in Sudan's Darfur region are nearly without drinking water after artillery fire destroyed a water tanker at a hospital, UNICEF said on Wednesday.

The tanker was stationed at the Saudi hospital, one of the few still operational in El Fasher, a city in North Darfur with a population of around two million.

The city is the only state capital among Darfur's five states to remain outside the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), but has been under siege by the paramilitary group since May 2024.

"Yesterday, a UNICEF-supported water truck in the Saudi hospital compound, El Fasher, was destroyed by artillery fire, disrupting access to safe water for an estimated 1,000 severely ill patients," the UN agency said.

"UNICEF continues to call on all parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and end all attacks on or near critical civilian infrastructure," it added.

The war in Sudan, now in its third year, has pitted the armed forces led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the RSF headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The conflict has effectively split the country in two, with the army controlling the north, east, and centre, while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.

On Wednesday, the army accused the RSF in a statement of targeting populated areas of the city.

In April, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimated that 70 to 80 per cent of health facilities in conflict-affected areas in Sudan were out of service, citing El Fasher as a prime example.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million, including 5.6 million in Darfur alone.

According to the UN, the war has caused the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Both sides in the conflict have been accused of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians, indiscriminately bombing residential areas and obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid.

DOHA — US President Donald Trump landed in Doha Wednesday after visiting Riyadh, where he urged Syria's president to normalise with Israel after offering a major boost to the war-ravaged country by vowing to lift sanctions.

Trump became the first US president in 25 years to meet a Syrian leader -- Ahmed al-Sharaa, an erstwhile Islamist guerrilla and onetime jihadist who had been on a US wanted list and led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December.

The interim Syrian president and Trump, wearing matching suits, shook hands as they met jointly in Riyadh with Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and, by video link, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- the key supporter of the new government in Damascus.

While aboard Air Force One en route to Qatar, Trump poured praise on Sharaa, saying the meeting went "great" and describing the leader as a "young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter."

Turkey and Saudi Arabia had both advocated reconciliation with Syria, but the move is the latest to put Trump at odds with Israel, which has expressed deep scepticism of Sharaa and ramped up its military strikes against Syria to degrade its longtime adversary's military capabilities.

When asked if Sharaa said he'd join the Abraham Accords and normalise relations with Israel, Trump said: "I told him, I hope you're going to join once you're straightened out and he said yes. But they have a lot of work to do."

Trump also asked Sharaa to deport Palestinian militants and tell foreign fighters to leave the country, as well as to take control of camps for captured Islamic State group fighters, currently run by Kurdish forces opposed by Turkey, the White House said.

Biggest applause

Syria's foreign ministry hailed the meeting as "historic", but did not mention the Abraham Accords. State media also did not mention normalisation.

The ministry said the leaders discussed "avenues for Syrian-American partnership in counterterrorism efforts" and the importance of lifting sanctions and supporting reconstruction.

After the longer-than-expected half-hour meeting, Trump said the Assad-era sanctions had been "really crippling".

"It's not going to be easy anyway, so it gives them a good, strong chance, and it was my honour to do so," Trump said, addressing Gulf Arab leaders.

The former reality television host, always attuned to crowd sizes, took note of the rapturous reception when he announced the decision at a Riyadh investment forum Tuesday.

"That was the thing that got the biggest applause from the room. We had a very crowded room with thousands of people," Trump said.

After the announcement, Syrians celebrated in cities across the country overnight.

"These sanctions were imposed on Assad, but... now that Syria has been liberated, there will be a positive impact on industry, it'll boost the economy and encourage people to return," said soap factory owner Zain Al Jabali, 54, in Aleppo.

Washington imposed sweeping restrictions on financial transactions with Syria during the brutal civil war and made clear it would use sanctions to punish anyone involved in reconstruction so long as Assad remained in power without accountability for atrocities.

Trump gave no indication that the United States would remove Syria from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism -- a designation dating back to 1979 over support to Palestinian militants that severely impedes investment.

A senior envoy of the Joe Biden administration met Sharaa in Damascus in December and called for commitments, including on the protection of minorities.

In recent weeks, Syria has seen a series of bloody attacks on minority groups, including Alawites -- the sect of the largely secular Assad family -- and the Druze.

Rabha Seif Allam of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo said easing US sanctions would help reintegrate Syria with the global economy by allowing bank transfers from investors and from millions of Syrians who fled during the civil war.

"Lifting sanctions will give Syria a real opportunity to receive the funding needed to revive the economy, impose central state authority and launch reconstruction projects with clear Gulf support," she said.

Trump touched down at Hamad International Airport in Doha on Wednesday afternoon, where he was met by Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

The president later boasted that Qatar Airways had placed a "record" order worth more than $200 billion in jet sales as he signed a raft of deals.

"It's over $200 billion but 160 in terms of the jets. That's fantastic. So that's a record," Trump said, adding: "It's the largest order of jets in the history of Boeing. That's pretty good."

Qatar has stirred controversy by offering a $400 million luxury aircraft to serve as a new Air Force One and then go to Trump's personal use.

ALEPPO, SYRIA — The sound of fireworks and applause rang out in Syria's major cities overnight, as Syrians celebrated US President Donald Trump's decision to lift sanctions on the devastated country.

In Syria's second city Aleppo, dozens of men, women and children took to the central Saadallah al-Jabiri Square, waving the new Syrian flag and singing.

Hours earlier in Riyadh, Trump announced he would lift sanctions on Syria, as the country seeks to rebuild after the December ouster of longtime president Bashar al-Assad.

Soap factory owner Zain al-Jabali, 54, rushed to the square as soon as she heard the news.

"These sanctions were imposed on Assad, but... now that Syria has been liberated, there will be a positive impact on industry, it'll boost the economy and encourage people to return," she told AFP.

Amid the sound of cars honking in celebration, 26-year-old Ghaith Anbi described the news as "the second joy since the fall of Assad".

"Lifting the sanctions on the Syrian people will have a very positive impact on reconstruction and rebuilding infrastructure, especially in Aleppo as an economic city," the civil engineer told AFP.

"There will be great economic prosperity for the Syrian people," he said.

'Turning point'

In the Saudi capital on Tuesday, Trump announced he was lifting the "brutal and crippling" Assad-era sanctions, in response to demands from new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa's allies in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Trump said it was Syrians' "time to shine" and that easing sanctions would "give them a chance at greatness".

The Syrian foreign ministry called Trump's decision a "pivotal turning point" that would help bring stability, draw in investment and reintegrate the country into the global economy.

Finance Minister Mohammed Barnieh said Trump's lifting of sanctions "will help Syria in building its institutions, providing essential services to the people and will create great opportunities to attract investment and restore confidence in Syria's future".

The United States imposed sweeping restrictions on financial transactions with Syria during the brutal civil war that began in 2011, targeting the ousted president, his family members and key government and economic figures.

In 2020, new sanctions came into effect under a US law known as the Caesar Act, punishing any companies linked to Assad in efforts to force accountability for human rights abuses and to encourage a political solution.

"These sanctions only ever hurt the Syrian people, not the regime," 63-year-old Taqi al-Din Najjar told AFP from Aleppo.

In Damascus, dozens more gathered in the capital's iconic Umayyad Square, chanting and singing in joy.

"My joy is great. This decision will definitely affect the entire country positively. Construction will return, the displaced will return, and prices will go down," said Hiba Qassar, a 33-year-old English teacher.

Ahmed Asma, 34, expressed hopes that "now that the sanctions are lifted we can live as we did before, or even better".

"We hope this is the start of a new era for Syria," he told AFP as he drove through the square.

NAIROBI — Amnesty International urged the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday to enforce a renewed arms embargo on South Sudan, alleging the recent presence of Ugandan troops was "in clear breach" of the order.

South Sudan has long grappled with insecurity and political instability, and renewed tensions between President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice-President Riek Machar, have spilt over into clashes between their forces.

Fighting in Upper Nile State earlier this year drew international concern, and led to the deployment of the Uganda People's Defence Force [UPDF] in March.

At the time, the Ugandan parliament said the deployment was at Kiir's request "to avert a potential security catastrophe".

However, Amnesty said verified videos of the arrival of troops in the capital Juba, as well as "armoured personnel carriers and military trucks... carrying tanks" on March 17 "violates" the terms of the embargo.

The embargo, which is due to expire on May 31, has been in place since 2018 when a peace deal ended a five-year civil war between Kiir and Machar.

While it does have some exemptions, Amnesty said neither the South Sudanese nor Ugandan authorities notified the UN Security Council.

"While the UN arms embargo has not been a panacea, the human rights situation would almost certainly be worse without it," said Amnesty's Tigere Chagutah, regional director for East and Southern Africa.

"Now is not the time to lift the embargo and add more weapons into the fray," he said, urging the Security Council to renew it.

"Enforce it and protect civilian lives," he added.

Amnesty said the South Sudan People's Defence Forces' ongoing use of attack helicopters,  which in 2020 were "non-functioning and grounded",  strongly suggests the embargo on spare parts was broken.

Doctors Without Borders said one of its hospitals was attacked in May by a helicopter gunship, killing seven.

AFP contacted the UPDF for comment, but there was not yet a response at the time of publication.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel's army on Wednesday urged Yemenis to stay away from Huthi-held ports, in a likely warning of retaliation after it intercepted a missile fired by the Iran-backed rebels.

The Huthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, have repeatedly targeted Israel and shipping in the Red Sea since the October 2023 start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted," said the Israeli military.

AFP correspondents in Jerusalem heard explosions, likely from the interception of the missile.

The Huthis, who control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula country, claimed responsibility for launching the missile in what they said was their third attack on Israel in less than 24 hours.

Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said they targeted Ben Gurion International Airport, Israel's main gateway near Tel Aviv, using what they called "a hypersonic ballistic missile".

The Israeli military later warned Yemenis to stay away from three Huthi-held sea ports.

"Due to the use of sea ports by the terrorist Huthi regime... we urge all people present in these ports to evacuate and stay away from them for your safety until further notice," military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X, mentioning the Yemeni ports of Hodeida, Ras Issa and Salif.

'Running for shelter' 

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar, speaking at a news conference in Tokyo, said the missile threat from Yemen was disrupting daily life.

"While we handle this press conference, there are sirens in Jerusalem and the centre of Israel after missiles from the Huthis in Yemen," he said.

"Millions of Israelis are now running for shelter, and it happens during the time that all the children go to schools or to kindergartens, and this is daily life under these attacks."

On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it intercepted another missile with which the Huthis claimed they targeted Ben Gurion.

Last month, a missile fired by the Iran-backed group struck the grounds of the airport, gouging a hole near its main terminal building and wounding several people, in a rare penetration of Israel's air defences.

Israel retaliated against the Huthis by striking the airport in Yemen's rebel-controlled capital Sanaa and three nearby power stations.

The Israeli military had issued a warning on Sunday for Yemenis to leave three Huthi-controlled ports, but no strikes have been reported since.

The Huthis paused their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire in the Gaza war, but in March threatened to renew them over Israel's aid blockade on Gaza.

US President Donald Trump, currently in Saudi Arabia on the first leg of a tour of the Gulf, last week announced the Huthis had agreed to halt attacks on shipping.

The United States began carrying out strikes against the Huthis in early 2024 under president Joe Biden, and Trump's administration launched renewed attacks on the rebels in March.

The Pentagon said on April 30 that US strikes had hit more than 1,000 targets in Yemen since mid-March in an operation dubbed "Rough Rider".

AMMAN — The Foreign Ministry has welcomed the US President Donald Trump’s announcement on the lifting of sanctions on Syria.

In a statement on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Sufian Qudah described thesanctions relief as an “important step towards rebuilding Syria and opening new horizons for economic cooperation with the world, which will reflect positively on achieving prosperity and development for the Syrian people.”

Qudah reiterated Jordan's unwavering support for the Syrians in rebuilding their country on foundations that insure its territorial unity, security, and stability.

Donald Trump announced Tuesday the lifting of sanctions on Syria, a move sought by the new leader whom he plans to see in Riyadh.

"I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness," Trump said to applause in a speech in Riyadh.

Donald Trump announced Tuesday the lifting of sanctions on Syria, a move sought by the new leader whom he plans to see in Riyadh.

"I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness," Trump said to applause in a speech in Riyadh.

Syria's foreign minister said on Tuesday that Trump's decision to lift sanctions on Syria was a "pivotal turning point" for the country.

Speaking to Syrian state news agency SANA, Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shaibani said he welcomed Trump's announcement, calling it a "pivotal turning point for the Syrian people, as we move towards a future of stability, self-sufficiency and genuine reconstruction after years of destructive war".

Ever since overthrowing longtime ruler Bashar Al Assad in December, Syria's new Islamist rulers have been pushing Western states to lift sanctions imposed largely on the former president's government.

During his visit to Paris last week, Syrian interim President Ahmed Al Sharaa said there was no justification for maintaining European sanctions imposed against the Assad government.

"These sanctions were imposed on the previous regime because of the crimes it committed, and this regime is gone," Sharaa said in a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"With the removal of the regime, these sanctions should be removed as well," he added.

US sanctions have isolated Syria from the global financial system and imposed a range of economic restrictions on the government throughout more than a decade of civil war.

ISTANBUL — Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan took part online in the Riyadh talks between Donald Trump and Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, praising the US leader's decision to lift sanctions on Damascus, Anadolu state news agency said.

In the conversation, the Turkish president described Trump's move as of "historic importance" and said it would set an example for other countries that have imposed sanctions, it said.

He also said Turkey would continue to support Syria's new leader in its fight "against terror organisations", notably the Daesh terror group’s militants.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was also present at the talks, it said.