Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urges calm after a bus driver ran over and killed a teenage boy during a protest. The incident happened Tuesday during a demonstration by thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews against a law seeking to draft them into Israel's military. Netanyahu calls for restraint to prevent further tragedies. Police say the driver was attacked by protesters. He has been arrested and was being questioned. The violence highlights tensions over military exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox. Many secular Israelis support drafting them, but religious protesters claim it threatens their way of life. This issue poses a political challenge for Netanyahu.

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 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.

Hospitals say that Israeli strikes overnight killed at least 57 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Hamas was still considering its response on Thursday to U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal for ending the nearly two-year war. The plan requires Hamas to return all 48 hostages — about 20 of them thought by Israel to be alive — to give up power and disarm in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and an end to fighting. Palestinians long for the war to end but many believe the plan favors Israel, and a Hamas official has said some elements were unacceptable, without elaborating.

Palestinian attackers have opened fire at a bus stop in Jerusalem during the morning rush hour, killing six people and wounding 12. An Israeli soldier and civilians shot and killed the two attackers, and police later arrested a third person. Monday's attack at a major intersection is the deadliest in Israel since October 2024. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the scene, warned that Israel is "fighting a war on multiple fronts." The Israeli military is encircling Palestinian villages near Ramallah in response. Hamas hailed the attack as a "natural response" to Israeli actions. The war in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians to date.

Europe and Israel have reached a new deal to allow more food and fuel into Gaza. The European Union's foreign policy chief said on Thursday that the plan could result in "more crossings open, aid and food trucks entering Gaza, repair of vital infrastructure and protection of aid workers." The announcement came as an Israeli airstrike killed 10 children and five adults outside a medical clinic to receive critical nutritional supplements and other care. The Israeli military says it was targeting a militant when it struck near the clinic. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel continues to pursue a deal for a 60-day pause in the fighting and the release of half of the hostages still held in Gaza.

Israel has recovered the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages taken in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli strikes overnight and into Thursday meanwhile killed at least 13 people, including three local journalists who were in the courtyard of a hospital, according to health officials in the territory. The military said it targeted a militant in that strike. Israel said the remains of Judih Weinstein and Gad Haggai were recovered in a special operation by the army and the Shin Bet internal security agency. The military says they were killed in the Oct. 7 attack. Hamas-led militants are still holding 56 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive.