Latest Hostage situations News
Proposed US resolution would back global efforts for an immediate and sustained cease-fire in Gaza
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States circulated the final draft of a United Nations Security Council resolution late Thursday that would support international efforts to establish “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war as part of a deal to release hostages taken...
Families of hostages held in Gaza despair as Ramadan cease-fire deadline passes
JERUSALEM (AP) — A brother contemplated suicide. A sister stopped going to school. A father barely speaks. With each passing day, the relatives of hostages held in Gaza since Oct. 7 face a deepening despair. Their hopes were raised that a cease-fire deal was near to bring some of...
Rio police release 17 hostages from a gunman on a bus, at least 2 wounded
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian police said Tuesday they released 17 hostages from a gunman that took over a crowded bus for three hours in Rio de Janeiro and wounded at least two people. Rio police spokesman Col. Marcos Andrade told journalists all hostages aboard a bus parked at...
UN envoy: Finding that some hostages were victims of sexual violence doesn't justify Israeli attacks
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. envoy focusing on sexual violence in conflict warned Israel on Monday that the finding of “clear and convincing information” that some hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel were subjected to sexual violence “does not in any way...
UN envoy Giandomenico Picco, who helped end the Iran-Iraq war and won hostage releases, has died
Former U.N. diplomat Giandomenico Picco, whose negotiating skills helped resolve some of the thorniest crises of the 1980s and 1990s, including the Iran-Iraq war and the kidnappings of Westerners by Hezbollah in Lebanon, has died. Picco passed away peacefully Sunday after a long...
A Jewish chorus blowing on the shofar marks 155 days of captivity for the hostages in Gaza
LONDON (AP) — The cacophonous wail of the shofar was loud, mournful and lasted nearly two minutes as dozens of Jews blew on rams' horns Sunday to wake up others to the plight of the estimated 100 hostages still held in Gaza. Demonstrators standing in the rain outside a London...
Another top donor says it will resume funding the UN agency for Palestinians as Gaza hunger grows
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Another top donor to the U.N. agency aiding Palestinians said Saturday that it would resume funding, weeks after more than a dozen countries halted hundreds of millions of dollars of support in response to Israeli allegations against the organization. ...
They went to school but ended up as hostages. 287 children are missing in Nigeria's forests
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Security forces swept through large forests in Nigeria’s northwest region on Friday in search of nearly 300 children abducted from their school by motorcycle-riding gunmen in the latest mass kidnapping, which analysts and activists blamed on the failure of intelligence and...
Hostage crisis poses dilemma for Israel and offers a path to victory for Hamas
Over the last five months, Israel has killed thousands of Hamas fighters, destroyed dozens of their tunnels and wreaked unprecedented destruction on the Gaza Strip. But it still faces a dilemma that was clear from the start of the war and will ultimately determine its outcome: It can...
Gaza cease-fire talks fail to achieve a breakthrough with Ramadan just days away, Egypt says
CAIRO (AP) — Three days of negotiations with Hamas over a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages failed to achieve a breakthrough Tuesday, Egyptian officials said, less than a week before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the informal deadline for a deal. ...