Uganda has agreed to a deal with the United States to take deported migrants as long as they don’t have criminal records and are not unaccompanied minors, the foreign ministry said Thursday. The ministry said in a statement that the agreement had been concluded but that terms were still being worked out. It added that Uganda prefers that the migrants sent there be of African nationalities, but did not elaborate on what Uganda might get in return for accepting deportees. The U.S. embassy in Uganda declined to comment on what it called “diplomatic negotiations,” but said that diplomats were seeking...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he will give final approval for the takeover of Gaza City while also restarting negotiations with Hamas aimed at returning all the remaining hostages and ending the war on Israel’s terms. The wide-scale operation in Gaza City could start within days. Netanyahu’s approval was expected during a meeting with senior security officials late Thursday, but no decision was announced before midnight in Jerusalem. Hamas said earlier this week that it had agreed to a ceasefire proposal from Arab mediators, which — if accepted by Israel — could forestall the offensive. The Israeli military has begun...

Palestinian factions started handing over some of the weapons held in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut to the Lebanese army on Thursday, an initial step in implementing a plan officials announced three months earlier for removing arms from the camps. It was a modest first step. One pickup left the camp loaded with weapons packed in bags. The butts of machine guns could be seen protruding from some of the sacks, while others contained rocket-propelled grenades. The removal of weapons from the camps was announced in May during a visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Lebanon, during which he and...

Hundreds gathered Thursday for a rare protest in Gaza City against the war and Israel’s plans to support the mass relocation of Palestinians to other countries. Women and children held placards reading “Save Gaza” and “Stop the war, stop the savage attack, save us,” against a backdrop of destroyed buildings as Palestinian music played. Unlike in previous protests, there were no expressions of opposition to Hamas. “We want the war on Gaza to stop. We don’t want to migrate. Twenty-two months … it’s enough. Enough death. Enough destruction,” said Bisan Ghazal, a woman displaced from Gaza City. In Israel, protesters marched Thursday night...

Syria’s transition remains “on a knife-edge” and violence could resume at any moment in the southern city of Sweida, which saw deadly clashes last month, the top U.N. envoy for Syria warned on Thursday. Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council that while violence in Sweida has largely subsided following a ceasefire, “the threat of renewed conflict is ever-present — as are the political centrifugal forces that threaten Syria’s sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity.” Syria is grappling with deep ethnic and religious divisions following the ouster of Syria’s autocratic President Bashar Assad in December, which brought an end to decades of Assad family rule. The...

“Old Town Road” rapper Lil Nas X was arrested and taken to the hospital early Thursday after he was found walking in the street without clothes and charging at officers in Los Angeles.The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement that officers responded to the 11000 block of Ventura Boulevard just before 6 a.m. after reports of a naked man. Police said the man charged at officers when they arrived.“He was transported to a local hospital for a possible overdose and placed under arrest for battery on a police officer,” police said.A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation...

An Israeli citizen detained in Lebanon has been returned to Israel after more than a year in detention, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday. There was little information given about the man, identified as Salah Abu-Hussein, an Arab citizen of Israel. His imprisonment had not garnered public attention in Israel or Lebanon. Israeli media reported that the man’s family had reported him missing around a year ago and was unaware he was in Lebanon. Lebanon’s General Security agency said in a statement that Abu-Hussein was held after crossing the border into Lebanon illegally. It said he was trying...