Israel's military says troops fired a mortar shell into a Palestinian residential area in the Gaza Strip, in the latest incident to rock the tenuous ceasefire with Hamas. Health officials on Wednesday said at least 10 people were wounded, and the army said it was investigating. The military said the mortar was fired during an operation in the area of the "Yellow Line," which was drawn in the ceasefire agreement that divides the Israeli-held majority of Gaza from the rest of the territory. The military said the mortar had veered from its intended target, which it did not specify.

Israel says it launched an airstrike in southern Gaza in retaliation for an attack by militants earlier in the day that wounded five Israeli soldiers. Israel also has received remains in Gaza of a possible hostage and says it will begin allowing Palestinians to leave the war-torn territory through a border crossing with Egypt. The remains will be examined to determine whether they belong to either of the two last hostages in Gaza. It was not immediately clear when the Gaza border crossing would be opened. Egypt wants Palestinians to immediately be able to return to Gaza through the crossing. Israel says it won't allow two-way crossings until all the Gaza hostages are returned.

Israel says it has received remains handed over by Palestinian militants in Gaza to the Red Cross. They are believed to be of one of two dead hostages still in Gaza, an Israeli and a Thai national. Israel's government said Tuesday the remains had been taken for forensics testing. Palestinian media say they were found in Gaza's northern town of Beit Lahiya. Since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire began on Oct. 10, 20 living hostages and the remains of 26 others have already been returned to Israel.

Israel has returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians, following Hamas' return of the remains of an Israeli hostage. This exchange is part of the first phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Meanwhile, Turkish, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators met in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss the next steps. The next phases of the truce include deploying an armed International Stabilization Force and developing an international body to govern Gaza. But violence continued in Gaza as well as in the West Bank, where Israel said it was conducting a "broad counterterrorism operation" on Wednesday.

Israel says it has received human remains that Palestinian militants handed over to the Red Cross, but it is not immediately clear if they are one of three hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday the remains will be taken for forensic testing and identification. The handover is the latest under the fragile ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10. Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it found the remains earlier this week in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza. The remaining hostages yet to be handed over are two Israelis and a man from Thailand.

The U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, set up to distribute aid to Gaza as an alternative to the United Nations but which Palestinians said endangered the lives of civilians as they tried to get food, has said it will shutter operations. The company had already closed distribution sites after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect six weeks ago in Gaza. It announced Monday that it was permanently shutting down, claiming it had fulfilled its mission. Also Monday, Israel's defense minister and its military's chief of staff clashed publicly over the army's latest probes of its failures in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian militants that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel's prime minister has met with top security officials to assess a rising tide of Israeli settler violence in the West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces increasing U.S. pressure to halt the flare-up that could undermine Washington's peace plan for Gaza. An Israeli official said Friday Netanyahu convened his security cabinet to discuss the recent spike in violence. The meeting took place as fresh allegations surface of Israeli settlers hurling rocks from an overpass at Palestinian vehicles passing below while a scrapyard was set ablaze in the West Bank village of Huwara. Washington is hoping Israel can contain the rising settler violence to avoid jeopardizing the U.N. Security Council-approved U.S. plan for Gaza.

The U.N. Security Council has backed the United States' plan for the future of the Gaza Strip. How and when it will be carried out remains largely unknown. In a twist unimaginable across the tumultuous history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the plan would mean U.S. President Donald Trump becomes the de facto ruler of Gaza. The territory remains devastated by Israel's campaign to eliminate Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war. An international body chaired by Trump is to govern Gaza and oversee reconstruction under a 2-year, renewable U.N. mandate. An armed International Stabilization Force is to keep security and ensure the disarming of Hamas. Major questions hang over nearly every part of the plan.

The U.N. Security Council is set to vote on a U.S. plan for Gaza, but a big question remains: Will Russia veto it? The U.S. resolution would provide international backing for a stabilization force and envisions a possible future pathway to an independent Palestinian state. After nearly two weeks of negotiations on the U.S. resolution, Russia suddenly circulated a rival proposal late Thursday that would strip out reference to a transitional authority meant to be headed by President Donald Trump. The vote is a crucial next step for the fragile ceasefire and efforts to outline Gaza's future following two years of war between Israel and Hamas.