The United States, Qatar and Egypt have issued a joint statement saying the mediators have put forward a “bridging proposal” that would allow the “swift” implementation of a deal that would end the war in Gaza and see the release of Israeli captives.

The three countries said on Friday that ceasefire negotiations in Doha were “serious and constructive”.

The current round of talks started on Thursday amid growing fears of a regional war after Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut and Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.

Friday’s statement echoed previous remarks by the mediators rejecting any delays in implementing an agreement to reach a ceasefire and release the captives.

“The path is now set for that outcome, saving lives, bringing relief to the people of Gaza, and de-escalation of regional tensions,” the three countries said on Friday.

The announcement did not provide details about the latest proposal, but it said it builds on a deal presented by US President Joe Biden in May.

The US-backed plan would see a multiphased effort to end the war, starting with a six-week pause in fighting that would enable the release of some Israeli captives held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

In the second phase, there would be a permanent end to the fighting and the release of all remaining Israeli captives. The final part of the agreement would include the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by the Israeli war.

On Friday, Biden expressed optimism about the prospect of reaching a deal. “We may have something, but we’re not there yet – much, much closer than it was three days ago,” he told reporters.

The White House said later that Biden held separate phone calls with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to “review the significant progress” in the ceasefire talks.

The US State Department also said Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel on Saturday (today) to “continue intensive diplomatic efforts to conclude the agreement”.

Hamas has said it would only agree to a deal that would lead to a permanent ceasefire, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a “serious” prisoner exchange.

Husam Badran, a member of the Hamas political bureau, reiterated the group’s position on Friday, saying that it is becoming clear that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scuttling the talks.

Asked about the optimism voiced by the US, Badran said Hamas does not see the US as a mediator but as an enabler and sponsor of the Israeli war on Gaza.

According to Israeli media reports, Netanyahu has been facing pressure from his own security chiefs to accept the deal and stop issuing new demands that could derail the talks.

Borrell threatens sanctions after Israeli settler attack on Palestinians in West Bank

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell condemned the latest attack by Israeli settlers against a Palestinian village in the West Bank, saying he plans to propose further sanctions against their supporters, including those in the government.

“Day after day, in an almost total impunity, Israeli settlers fuel violence in the occupied West Bank, contributing to endanger any chance of peace,” Borrell said in a post on X on Friday.

“The Israeli government must stop these unacceptable actions immediately. I confirm my intention to table a proposal for EU sanctions against violent settlers’ enablers, including some Israeli government members,” he concluded.

On Thursday, masked Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank stormed the village of Jit, setting homes and cars on fire, Israeli and Palestinian media said.

The settlers opened fire and lobbed tear gas at residents, killing a 23-year-old Palestinian and critically injuring another, Palestinian health officials and local authorities said.

At least two people sought medical help for injuries from stones thrown at them, while a third person needed assistance due to smoke inhalation, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the attack he said he regarded with “utmost severity”, saying it was the responsibility of the army to secure the country. “Those responsible for any offence will be apprehended and tried,” Netanyahu added in a statement.

Israel’s military said it has apprehended one civilian who took part in the violence and has opened an investigation.

Thursday’s attack was the latest incident since the outbreak of the war. In the West Bank, 633 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire – most by Israeli raids into Palestinian cities and towns.

First case of polio in Gaza after 25 years

A 10-month-old baby has been diagnosed with polio in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced. This is the first case after 25 years.

Previously, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had warned about the spread of the virus in Gaza.

Kamala Harris plans tax breaks in bid to ease cost of living crisis

Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled parts of her economic programme, including new tax relief for families and homebuyers and a crackdown on price gouging, as she tries to persuade voters she can tackle a cost of living crisis that has dogged the Biden administration.

The Fnancial Times reports the Democratic presidential candidate laid out the plans in a speech in North Carolina, a battleground state where her Republican rival Donald Trump delivered his own speech on economic policy earlier this week.

Trump and Harris are battling for votes with just over 80 days to go before November’s US presidential election. The Republican candidate has railed against inflation while vowing to drive down fuel and housing costs and setting out his own protectionist economic agenda.

Harris said that if elected president, she would be “laser-focused on creating opportunities for the middle class that advance their economic security, stability and dignity”. The vice-president said she would lay out more economic plans in the weeks to come, but on Friday focused on her proposals to reduce the cost of living.

“Look, the bills add up. Food, rent, gas, back to school, clothes, prescription medication, after all that, for many families, there’s not much left at the end of the month,” she said. “I will take on the high costs that matter most to most Americans.”

The most significant of Harris’s proposals include a $6,000 tax credit for families with newborn children, an expansion of an existing credit for families with older children to $3,600 per year, and up to $25,000 in down payment support for first-time homebuyers.

Harris, who replaced President Biden as the Democratic candidate last month, has pulled ahead of Trump in some polls but is under pressure to come up with her own detailed economic plan. Biden struggled to convince Americans that he had a plan to quell inflation, which jumped to a multi-decade high in 2022 but has drifted lower since then.

Ukraine links Kursk incursion to ‘fair talks’ as Russia closes in on key city

Ukraine’s lightning offensive into several Russian border regions is designed to persuade Moscow to engage in “fair” talks about its war in Ukraine, an aide to President Zelensky has said, as Russian forces close in on the strategic city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region.

“We need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia,” the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “In the Kursk region, we clearly see how the military tool is objectively used to convince the Russian Federation to enter into a fair negotiation process.

“We have proven, effective means of coercion. In addition to economic and diplomatic ones, we need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia.”

Podolyak made his comments as it appeared that Ukraine had largely cut off a significant area of Glushovsky district of Kursk and Russian troops there after blowing up two important bridges on the Seim river.

In an update on Thursday, the Institute for the Study of War thinktank wrote: “Russian forces are maintaining their relatively-high offensive tempo in Donetsk oblast, demonstrating that the Russian military command continues to prioritise advances in eastern Ukraine even as Ukraine is pressuring Russian forces within Kursk oblast.”

Russia has accused Nato and the west more widely of aiding the Ukrainian incursion, including by permitting the use of western-supplied equipment. But British officials said Ukraine was entitled under international law to use British-donated equipment in operations, including within Russia.

Is Libya on the brink of a new civil war?

With two rival governments at either end of the country, ongoing political ruptures and now, fresh military mobilisation, there are fears Libya could be heading toward more violence and fighting.

Over the past week, various international bodies have sent out the alarm. In a statement, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya said it was monitoring “with concern the recent mobilisation of forces in various parts of Libya”.

The organisation, known as UNSMIL, urged “all parties to exercise maximum restraint and avoid any provocative military actions that could be perceived as offensive”.

On Thursday, the EU delegation to Libya expressed similar concerns: “The use of force would harm stability in Libya and lead to human suffering. It should be avoided at all cost,” it said in a statement.

Longtime Libya watchers were more direct, suggesting that, after around four years of relative calm in the country, civil war might be about to break out once again.

The warnings came in response to last week’s large mobilisation of militias affiliated with one of Libya’s two rival administrations.

DW’s Cathrin Schaer says the government in eastern Libya is supported by former warlord-turned-politician Khalifa Haftar, who controls various armed groups in his area. It was Haftar’s forces that appeared to be moving toward Tripoli late last week. In 2019, Haftar attacked the city but was eventually forced to sign a cease-fire in 2020.

Haftar said troops under the command of his son, Saddam, were marching in order to secure Libyan borders, to fight drug and human trafficking and to combat terrorism. However, military analysts suspected other plans.

Haftar’s forces have wanted control of Ghadames airport and its surroundings for some time, Jalel Harchaoui, a North Africa expert with UK-based think tank the Royal United Services Institute, told French newspaper Le Monde. Controlling Ghadames “would significantly enhance his territorial stature in relation to Algeria, Tunisia and Niger,” said Harchaoui, and would also block access for the rival GNU.

If Haftar’s troops seize Ghadames, it “would officially mark the collapse of the 2020 cease-fire,” Tarek Megerisi, a Libya expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

In response to the troop movements, a range of other militias that support the Tripoli government in the west were told to increase their combat readiness.

The day after Haftar’s mobilisation was sighted, a clash between two militias in Tajoura, on the coastal outskirts of Tripoli, left at least nine dead. However, local media later reported this had been motivated by an assassination attempt on one of the militia leaders.

And this week, the situation in Libya seems to have calmed again. But the danger remains, experts told DW.

Emadeddin Badi, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who focuses on Libya, sees Haftar’s latest moves as a kind of ongoing “brinkmanship”.

“Many of the actors [in Libya] are engaging in this, to see how far they could go in kind of taunting, or sidelining, or undermining their opponents,” he said. “A zero sum mentality still prevails,” he added, referring to the fact that opposing factions in Libya believe that one of them must eventually run the country, as opposed to working together for unity.

Both Libyan governments are also supported by an array of foreign powers. The government in the west is backed by Turkey; the administration to the east by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia. Previously, the UN and others have pushed for various international backers of the two sides in Libya and their soldiers to leave the country.

Missouri woman arrested for allegedly defrauding Presley estate

Federal authorities on Friday arrested and charged a Missouri woman in connection with the scheme to fraudulently auction Elvis Presley’s historic Graceland mansion.

Lisa Jeanine Findley – otherwise known as Lisa Holden, Lisa Howell, Gregory Naussany, Kurt Naussany, Lisa Jeanine Sullins and Carolyn Williams – was charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the US Department of Justice.

Findley, 53, allegedly posed as three different people from Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC, a made-up company that claimed the late Lisa Marie Presley had borrowed $3.8 million from it and offered Graceland as collateral. Authorities allege that Findley created several fake documents to carry out the scam, including loan documents containing the forged signatures of Presley and Florida notary Kimberly L. Philbrick.

Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled