Tunisian opposition veteran Ahmed Nejib Chebbi was arrested at his home Thursday, his daughter said, following his sentencing to 12 years in jail for plotting against the state in a trial denounced by rights groups as politically motivated.

Chebbi, 81, is the co-founder of the National Salvation Front (FSN), Tunisia's main opposition coalition.

A United Nations Security Council delegation arrived in Syria on Thursday, state media reported, the first-ever visit to the country just days before the anniversary of the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

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.

The European Union on Wednesday issued updated guidance for asylum applications by Syrian nationals that reflects new conditions in Syria a year after the fall of the Bashar Assad. The changes may influence the result of asylum requests of some 110,000 Syrians who were still awaiting an asylum decision at the end of September.

The European Union Agency for Asylum said opponents of Assad and military service evaders "are no longer at risk of persecution."

Israel said Wednesday that partial remains returned by militants did not match the hostages remaining in Gaza, while it announced plans to reopen a key Gaza border crossing for the exit of Palestinians from the strip.

While the DNA findings marked a setback for ceasefire efforts, the reopening of the Rafah border crossing indicated that the U.S.-backed plan is still moving ahead.

U.S. President Donald Trump told Israel to avoid destabilizing Syria and its new leadership, days after a deadly operation by Israeli forces killed 13 people.

The Israeli army said on Sunday it had killed four Palestinian militants coming out of tunnels in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.