For people in the Gaza Strip, simple modern-day pleasures are considered far-fetched luxuries. Watching movies is no exception.

On Saturday, August 26, hundreds of Gaza residents went to the cinema for the first time in three decades.

Some 300 people, both men and women, gathered in Gaza City's Samer Cinema for a one-night screening of the film Ten Years, a feature-length film about Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

There are currently no operational cinemas in Gaza, which is home to some two million people living under an Israeli blockade.

Samer Cinema, the oldest in the strip, was built in 1944 but shut down in the 1960s. Other cinemas in the city remained open until the late 1980s during the first Palestinian Intifada.

In 1995, calls for the reopening of cinemas were "were met with grenade attacks by radical Islamists," according to The Independent, in reference to a fire at one cinema in 1987 for which radical Islamists are believed to be responsible.

"The rest of the cinemas were scared to show films after that," Ghada Salmi, an organizer, told The Guardian.

Inside the city, Hamas implements conservative Islamic views, so movies require approval before being screened, even privately.

Prior to Saturday's screening, movies had occasionally been screened outdoors or in private halls. 

Actors who appeared in the film attended the screening.

"We as Palestinians need to have a large space for art," actor Nermin Ziara told the Agence France Presse (AFP). "Society needs to develop through films and documentaries."

Ziara added that she does not "think there is a problem with opening a cinema with Hamas as it is a place of art".

Eight out of the nine Lebanese soldiers who had been held captive by the so-called Islamic State (Daesh) since 2014 are believed to have died, according to a statement by the head of the General Security agency.

The Lebanese army has located remains that are likely to belong to some of the abducted Lebanese soldiers, Major General Abbas Ibrahim announced on Sunday. 

"We have removed the remains of six bodies. We are expecting the number to go up to eight," Ibrahim said, according to the Middle East Eye. "We believe that these remains belong to the soldiers." 

The latter said that he is "almost certain that the case is closed," but the identities of the soldiers are yet to be confirmed through DNA testing.

This came hours after the Lebanese army declared a controversial ceasefire deal with the terrorist group along the border with Syria, in exchange for information on the missing soldiers.

The nine soldiers - Mohammad Youssef, Ibrahim Mughait, Khaled Hasan, Hussein Ammar, Mustafa Ali Wehbe, Ali al Masri, Seif Thebian, Abdel Rahim Diab and Ali Haj Mustafa al-Hasan - were abducted in August 2014, when the militant group overran the town of Arsal in northeast Lebanon. 

The Lebanese Army had successfully forced out the IS militants to the nearby mountainous outskirts at the time.  

Last week, a ceasefire deal was declared on the Syria-Lebanon border, leading to negotiations over the kidnapped soldiers.

According to the Daily Star, the deal allows IS fighters and their families to be evacuated from the border area into Syria's Deir Ezzor Province, which is mainly controlled by the terrorist group. 

In light of the negotiations, Lebanese authorities located the remains that are believed to belong to eight out of the nine soldiers. 

"It has not been confirmed yet that these remains belong to the military soldiers, although we are almost certain they are," the National News Agency quoted Ibrahim as saying.

 The fate of the ninth soldier is still unknown. 

As per the national norm, several outlets raced to report the news, all the while disregarding media ethics and failing to take into consideration the feelings of the soldiers' loved ones.

Graphic photos of the bodies circulated on social media, as did fake news about the soldiers' fate. 

"Those who allowed the soldiers to be held hostage should be prosecuted. The army cannot afford having more martyrs, whom the failed authority will forget once the cameras are turned off #The_Abducted_Soldiers" 

"Why don't they punish the murderers rather than allow them to flee towards Deir Ezzor? #The_Abducted_Soldiers" 

"Negotiating [with] and allowing terrorists to leave safely after they killed the soldiers, is a scandal and a crime against the army and Lebanese dignity #The_Abducted_Soldiers"

"Shame on the country whose soldiers are returning in tombs while criminal terrorists are leaving in air-conditioned buses #The_Abducted_Soldiers"

"Settlements regarding the soldiers' blood have been completed, but who will compensate for the martyrs' families? 

Your blood is an honor and your sacrifices are [demonstrations of] loyalty #The_Abducted_Soldiers"