- No.1 Korda opens Solheim Cup for USA versus Hull and Henseleit
- Trump rules out new Harris debate as swing state fight resumes
- Bomb threat rattles US city in Republican anti-migrant conspiracy
- ECB rate cut boosts European stocks as Wall Street extends rally
- Alvarez aims to stop knockout artist Berlanga in latest title defence
- Business groups ask Ottawa to prevent Air Canada strike
- Cooler weather helps, but Los Angeles fires still out of control
- Macron, ex-PM remember bloody liberation of French port
- Noel Gallagher's 'Brit Pop' guitars go under hammer
- US clears way for hearing aid feature in new Apple AirPods Pro
- Hamilton not disappointed by Newey move to Aston Martin
- Final report clears WADA in Chinese swimmers case, adds rules need strengthening
- US calls for Africa to get two permanent UN Security Council seats
- Burrow's Bengals aim to bounce back against Chiefs
- Ingebrigtsen says getting stronger, bullish over world records
- Putin warns West risks 'war' if it backs Ukraine long-range strikes
- Peru mourns divisive former strongman Fujimori
- Vaughan's son takes 11 wickets as Somerset revive title bid by beating champions Surrey
- Long-awaited case on Man City charges to start on Monday: report
- PSG refuse League order to pay Mbappe disputed €55 million
- Harris, Trump target swing states after fierce debate
- Ten Hag hits back at Ronaldo criticism over Man Utd ambition
- Oscar hopefuls to bookend US French film festival
- UN chief calls for 'courage' ahead of Summit of the Future
- French rugby federation blames 'poorly managed' supervision for youth player drowning
- Movie producer Harvey Weinstein indicted on new charges: US media
- Ex-Scotland captain Hogg to miss Montpellier match after bail release
- 'Historic': Bad weather slashes wine harvest in France's Jura
- ECB rate cut boosts European stocks, euro
- Piastri not 'pulling over' for Norris at every race
- 'Energised' Tebogo looking to close season with Diamond League bang
- Millions in SE Asia battle floods, death toll passes 250
- Fiat 500 electric production pauses for one month
- London Fashion Week opens with Charli XCX party and second-hand runways
- ECB cuts rates again, Lagarde backs EU reform call
- Storm Francine downgraded but still drenching US south
- Everton say 'work to be done' on Textor takeover
- Shelling kills 3 Red Cross workers in E.Ukraine
- Shelling kills 3 Red Cross workers killed in E.Ukraine
- Iran president makes 'historic' visit to Iraqi Kurdistan
- Brigitte Macron awarded damages over false trans claim
- ECB rate cut boosts Europeans stocks, euro
- Deadly Israeli strike on Gaza school draws global condemnation
- Russia recaptures part of Kursk region
- Bike-loving Dutch grapple with 'fatbike' phenomena
- Ahead of Champions League warm-up, PSG are soaring and Brest slumping
- ECB cuts rates again as inflation slows
- Denmark's von Trier to direct a new film
- Arteta agrees new Arsenal deal
- Jon Bon Jovi helps woman standing on edge of US bridge
Hamas official slams Israeli 'refusal' of Gaza deal over border troops
A Hamas official on Friday accused Israel's prime minister of refusing to agree to a final truce accord for Gaza, where the presence of Israeli troops on the Egyptian border remained a major sticking point.
An Israeli team was in Cairo "negotiating to advance a hostage (release) agreement", Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman Omer Dostri told AFP late on Thursday.
But Hamas representatives were not taking part and an official from the Islamist movement, Osama Badran, told AFP on Friday that Netanyahu's insistence that troops remain on the Philadelphi border strip reflects "his refusal to reach a final agreement".
Egypt with fellow mediators Qatar and the United States have for months tried to reach a deal to end more than 10 months of war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza.
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken visited the region this week to emphasise the urgency of an agreement.
Witnesses on Friday reported combat in the territory's north, heavy shelling in the centre, and tank fire in the far south near Rafah city.
The United Nations said tens of thousands of civilians have been on the move again this week from Deir el-Balah and the southern city of Khan Yunis after Israeli military evacuation orders, which precede military operations.
The war has displaced about 90 percent of Gaza's population, often multiple times, leaving them deprived of shelter, clean water and other essentials as disease spreads, the UN says.
- 'No way to live' -
"Civilians are exhausted and terrified, running from one destroyed place to another, with no end in sight," Muhannad Hadi, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said late Thursday.
"This cannot continue," he said.
Israel's military on Friday said that over the past day troops had "eliminated dozens" of militants around Khan Yunis and Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza.
In April the military had pulled troops out of Khan Yunis after months of devastating fighting, yet has found itself having to resume operations there, leaving civilians feeling they have nowhere to turn.
"This is no way to live," said Haitham Abdelaal.
Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the war and resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed 40,265 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths. The UN rights office says most dead are women and children.
Palestinian militants also seized 251 hostages, of whom 105 remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.
The Israeli military recovered the remains of six hostages from a tunnel in the Khan Yunis area this week, and on Thursday said bullets had been found in their bodies, indicating they had been shot.
An investigation continues into the circumstances of their deaths, a military spokesman said.
- 'Now is the time' -
Diplomatic efforts to reach a Gaza truce and avert a wider war intensified following the killings of two senior Iran-backed militants that sparked threats of reprisals from Tehran and its allies, who blamed Israel.
Accepting her Democratic party's presidential nomination in Chicago, US Vice President Kamala Harris said "now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done".
The basis of talks has been a framework which US President Joe Biden outlined in late May, and which he described as an Israeli proposal.
The three-phase plan would initially see hostages exchanged for Palestinians in Israeli jails during what Biden called a "full and complete ceasefire" lasting six weeks.
Israeli forces would withdraw from "all populated areas of Gaza", under the plan.
During his regional tour, Blinken said Netanyahu had accepted a US "bridging proposal" for a truce that "is very clear on the schedule and the locations" of the Israeli withdrawal.
Badran, the Hamas official, on Friday reiterated that Hamas "accepted the Biden plan" originally outlined and said Washington must pressure Netanyahu for a ceasefire.
Badran said Hamas will accept "nothing less than the withdrawal of occupation forces, Philadelphi included."
The office of Netanyahu, whose hard-right coalition relies on the support of members opposed to a truce, rejected as "incorrect" media reports that "Netanyahu has agreed that Israel will withdraw" from the Philadelphi corridor.
The prime minister sees control of the strip along the Egyptian border as necessary to prevent Hamas rearming.
- Red Sea rescue -
Netanyahu faces regular protests by hostage supporters demanding a deal to bring home the captives.
"It's been postponed so many times," said Ran Sadeh, 57.
He said a deal would also help settle tensions on Israel's northern border, where Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily fire.
Another Iran-backed group acting in support of Hamas, Yemen's Huthi rebels, have for months been attacking ships in surrounding waters vital to world trade.
The Philippines on Friday urged its mariners to avoid the Red Sea, after sailors from a European Union naval mission rescued the largely Filipino crew of an oil tanker attacked by Huthis in the Red Sea.
US forces destroyed two Huthi drones over the Red Sea and another drone in a rebel-held area of Yemen, Central Command said on Thursday.
burs-it/
H.E.Young--AMWN