Middle East updates: Germany condemns deadly settler attack

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel this weekend to push forward a Gaza cease-fire deal as the United States tries to bridge the gaps in talks in the region, the State Department said.

Blinken is set to leave on Saturday and will seek to "conclude the agreement for a cease-fire and release of hostages and detainees through the bridging proposal." 

A US official said there would be working group engagements over the week to talk about a list of hostages being held by Palestinian militants in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners who could be released in exchange. 

That proposal was presented Friday during talks in Doha by the US, with negotiations set to resume in Cairo next week.

In response, Israel issued a vague statement saying it appreciated the mediators' efforts in Doha.

Meanwhile, a statement from Hamas did not sound enthusiastic about the latest proposal. 

The AFP news agency reported that Hamas objected to an Israeli veto on prisoners to be released, and the country having the option to deport some prisoners rather than return them to Gaza.

The war started when Hamas-led militants stormed across the heavily guarded frontier from Gaza into Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. 

They also took about 250 hostages, more than 100 of whom were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. About 110 are thought to still be inside Gaza, but Israeli authorities believe around a third of them are dead.

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel's devastating retaliatory offensive, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but the UN and multiple humanitarian organizations consider the casualty numbers to be broadly reliable.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz says he has made clear that Israel would expect support from the UK and France in the case of any potential attack by Iran.

Katz was said to have made the comments in a meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his French counterpart Stephane Sejourne in Jerusalem.

"I made it clear to the foreign ministers of France and Britain: If Iran attacks, Israel expects the international coalition led by the US, Britain and France to join Israel not only in defense but also in attacking significant targets in Iran," Katz said according to a statement from the Israeli Ministry of Defence issued via WhatsApp.

In a statement on X, Katz said he had made it clear to his French and British counterparts "that the right way to deter Iran and prevent war is by announcing that if Iran attacks, they will stand with Israel not only in defense but also in striking targets in Iran."

"Iran is the head of the axis of evil, and the free world must stop it now before it's too late," Katz said.  

French Foreign Minister Sejourne replied that it would be "inappropriate" to discuss responding to any attack while high-stakes diplomacy was underway to stop it happening.

US President Joe Biden on Friday said "we are closer than we've ever been" to a cease-fire in Gaza, "but we're not there yet."

His comments came as talks in Qatar were paused until next week when they will resume in Egypt.

"I don't want to jinx anything ... we may have something. But we're not there yet," Biden told reporters in the White House's Oval Office.

"It's much, much closer than it was three days ago. So, keep your fingers crossed."

The UN human rights office has said an Israeli settler attack on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank was "horrific," stressing that Israel had to end impunity.

The body said deadly violence in the Palestinian territory, heightened since the start of the Gaza war, "needs to stop."

"It was horrific," said UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani.

"What is striking and important to remember is that yesterday's killing in Jit is not an isolated attack, and it is the direct consequence of Israel's policy of settlement in the West Bank," she added.

Referring toattacks across the West Bank since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, she said: "There are reports of Israeli security forces standing by as attacks take place."

"There are even reports of weapons being distributed to the settlers. So there is clearly a state responsibility in this regard."

Shamdasani said the UN rights office had reported in recent years that settlers were attacking Palestinian communities in the West Bank "with impunity."

The Israeli army is warning people in parts of southern and central Gaza  that were previously designated humanitarian safe zones to leave. 

The Israel Defense Forces say Hamas has used the areas to fire mortars and rockets at Israel.

Residents of Deir al-Balah, an area still not entered by Israeli forces since the war began more than 10 months ago, say shelling has begun to intensify, with tanks crossing a perimeter fence into the city.

Israel said warning flyers and text messages had been sent out in the eastern part of Deir al-Balah and another area north of the city of Khan Younis. 

The zones have become home to tens of thousands of people sheltering from fighting in other parts of the Gaza Strip.

"The advance warning to civilians is being issued in order to mitigate harm to the civilian population and to enable civilians to move away from the combat zone," the military said in a statement.

An attack on Deir al-Balah could force tens of thousands of people to flee again to other parts of an already devastated enclave.

The EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell says he will propose sanctions against Israeli government "enablers" of settler violence after a deadly attack on a village in the occupied West Bank.

His announcement follows a settler rampage in the village of Jit, near Nablus, in which one person was killed and several others were injured.

Borrell said the Israeli government must stop these unacceptable actions immediately.

"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 posted on X.

Dozens of Israeli civilians, some masked, entered the village and "set fire to vehicles and structures in the area, hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails," the Israeli military said.

Palestinians regularly accuse Israeli forces, which are responsible for security in the West Bank, of standing by and allowing groups of violent settlers to attack their homes and villages. 

Borrell said he would table a proposal for EU sanctions against violent settlers' enablers, including some Israeli government members.

Any such sanctions would require approval from the EU's 27 member states, who are divided over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The UK and France have both strongly condemned the Israeli settlers' attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.  

British Foreign Minister David Lammy and French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne both made their remarks at a press conference in Israel.

"The scenes overnight, of the burning and the torching of buildings, of the Molotov cocktails thrown at cars, of the widespread rampage and chasing of people from their homes, is abhorrent, and I condemn it in the strongest of terms," Lammy said.

Sejourne warned of the potential impact that the attack might have on Gaza cease-fire talks.

"We condemn this situation," Sejourne said. "Any action that could jeopardize the negotiation process towards a cease-fire deal is unacceptable."

A joint statement from Egypt, Qatar, and the United States says a new cease-fire proposal has been presented that closes the remaining gaps in the agreement. 

The US says it has offered a "bridging proposal" to Israel and Hamas in Doha to seal a Gaza cease-fire deal as talks ended for the week.

Washington said the two days of talks in Doha had been "serious and constructive" and that CIA Director William Burns had offered ideas to close an agreement toward ending the 10-month conflict.

"This proposal builds on areas of agreement over the past week, and bridges remaining gaps in the manner that allows for a swift implementation of the deal," a White House statement signed by co-mediators Qatar and Egypt said.

"Senior officials from our governments will reconvene in Cairo before the end of next week with the aim to conclude the deal under the terms put forward today," it said.

A joint statement by the three countries last week foresaw the release of hostages and detainees and the implementation of a cease-fire.

Friday's statement said: "The path is now set for that outcome, saving lives, bringing relief to the people of Gaza, and de-escalating regional tensions."

UN agencies have called for two seven-day breaks in the fighting in Gaza to vaccinate more than 640,000 children against polio. 

The disease, transmitted via fecal and oral contamination, has recently been detected in the wastewater.

The UN's health and children's agencies said they had drawn up detailed plans to reach children across the besieged Palestinian territory, starting later this month.

But that would require pauses in the fighting between Israel and Hamas, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said.

They said they were planning two rounds of a vaccination campaign across the Gaza Strip, starting in late August, against type 2 poliovirus.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for parties to the conflict in Gaza to provide concrete assurances guaranteeing humanitarian pauses for the campaign to be conducted.

"Let’s be clear: The ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian cease-fire," Guterres said.

"But in any case, a polio pause is a must. It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over."

Last month, it was announced that type 2 poliovirus had been detected in environmental surveillance samples collected in Gaza on June 23.

A WHO spokeswoman said they were asking for seven days for each round.

During each round of the campaign, the Health Ministry in Gaza, alongside UN agencies, would provide two drops of vaccine to more than 640,000 children under 10 years of age.

The US ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, has said he was "appalled" by settler violence in the West Bank village of Jit, in which a Palestinian man was killed by militant Israeli settlers. 

"These attacks must stop and the criminals be held to account," Lew wrote on the social media platform X.

The 22-year-old Palestinian was killed by gunfire when dozens of masked settlers stormed the village west of Nablus. 

Other Palestinians were badly injured, one of them seriously, authorities said.

Israeli media reported that the settlers set fire to at least four houses and six cars. According to a media report, the army detained an Israeli and handed him over to the police. 

Top officials in Israel have roundly condemned the rampage in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The denunciation of settler violence, instances of which have grown more common since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, was a rare one from the Israeli government.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he took the riots "seriously" and that Israelis who carried out such criminal acts would face prosecution.

He issued what appeared to be a call for settlers to stand down.

"Those who fight terrorism are the IDF and the security forces, and no one else," he said, using an acronym for the Israeli military.

President Isaac Herzog also condemned the attack, as did Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said the perpetrators "attacked innocent people" and did not "represent the values" of settler communities.

It was unclear why the Jit attack yielded such a strong rebuke from Israeli leaders.

A similar settler riot in the village of Al-Mughayyir in April went without comparable mention from the authorities.

Germany has condemned a Jewish settler attack on a village in the occupied West Bank as "unacceptable."

The Palestinian Authority said the Israeli settlers had killed one Palestinian and wounded another.

"We condemn the violence of extremist settlers," the German Foreign Office in Berlin posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Friday.

"This violence is unacceptable, the attacks must stop immediately," it said. "Palestinians have a right to live in safety. Israel has an obligation to protect Palestinians in the West Bank."

Palestinians regularly accuse Israeli forces, which are responsible for security in the West Bank, of standing by and allowing groups of violent settlers to attack their homes and villages. The incidents have attracted increasing concern internationally.

rc/nm (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)