Israel said it launched an airstrike on a Hamas militant in southern Gaza late Wednesday in retaliation for an attack earlier in the day that wounded five Israeli soldiers.

The strike was the latest test for a fragile ceasefire that has mostly held up since early October, despite claims of violations by both Israel and Hamas. Hamas put out a statement condemning the Israeli strike in Khan Younis.

Israel's army said Thursday the remains of the second-to-last Gaza hostage -- a Thai national -- to be handed over had been identified.

It comes as a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remains fragile, with both sides accusing each other of violating the terms.

Egypt denied on Wednesday that it had agreed with Israel the opening of the Rafah crossing to Gaza for residents of the Palestinian territory to exit, insisting it be opened in both directions.

"If an agreement is reached to open the crossing, it will be in both directions, to enter and exit the Gaza Strip, in accordance with the plan of US President Donald Trump," the state information service said in a statement, quoting an official Egyptian source.

Officials from Hamas and Islamic Jihad told AFP the two Palestinian militant groups would on Wednesday send to Israel a sample from a body recovered in the Gaza Strip.

A Hamas official said a team from the two groups' armed wings "found remains that are possibly those of an Israeli hostage" under the rubble in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, and that the Red Cross would transfer a sample to the Israeli side for examination.

Syrian authorities said on Wednesday they had killed a man and arrested four others who were attempting to smuggle hundreds of landmines to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group.

In a statement, the interior ministry said it launched a raid in al-Jebbe, near the capital Damascus, during which "four people were arrested and a fifth neutralized after a clash".

Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks Wednesday in decades, part of a year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism in the war with Hezbollah, a source close to the talks told AFP.

The meeting was taking place at the U.N. peacekeeping force's headquarters in Lebanon Naqoura near the border with Israel, the source said, as part of a mechanism to oversee the ceasefire that took hold in November 2024.

Lebanon announced on Wednesday that it would appoint a civilian to lead its delegation to the body overseeing the ceasefire with Israel, after a request from the United States.

Until now Lebanon, which does not recognize Israel, had insisted on keeping a military officer in the role.

Pope Leo XIV called for an end to hostilities in Lebanon and said the Middle East needed new approaches for peace as he finished a three-day trip to the country by urging an end to divisions.

In a Beirut square that was once a physical embodiment of Lebanon's sectarian rifts, Christian and Muslim leaders united around Pope Leo XIV on Monday as he urged them to work for peace in their divided nation.

Pope Leo XIV got a rockstar welcome from thousands of Lebanese youth on Monday, bringing them a message of hope on the second day of his visit to the crisis-hit country.