The Guardian, Reuters, the Times, Independent and the Financial Times report that the US Senate has passed a resolution calling for an end to US military support to the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemen war and condemning Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, for the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Guardian reports that the resolution, which passed by 56 votes to 41, marked the first time the Senate had invoked the 1973 War Powers Resolution to seek to curb the power of the President to take the US into an armed conflict. It marked a significant bipartisan rebuke to the Trump administration, which lobbied intensively against it. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders who had pushed the resolution persistently throughout the year, called it “a historic moment”. He said: “Today we declare we will not long participate in the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen which has caused the worst humanitarian crisis on earth, with 85,000 children starving to death. Today we tell the despotic regime in Saudi Arabia that we will no longer be part of their military adventurism.” The resolution still faces serious obstacles to becoming law. The House of Representatives, controlled by Republicans for another month, is unlikely to endorse it. The Democrats will take over the House next month, but the legislative process of passing the resolution would have to begin again. Then it would face a certain veto from President Donald Trump, which would require a two-thirds vote in both houses to overturn. The Financial Times reports that Bob Corker, the Republican senator who has been among the most vocal critic following a CIA briefing last week, put forward an additional resolution to hold Saudi’s crown prince accountable for Khashoggi’s death. That measure, which also passed, outlined “concerning behaviour” exhibited by the Kingdom, and said “misleading statements” by Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s death had “undermined trust and confidence” between the US and the Kingdom.

Reuters reports that Jordanian authorities deployed hundreds of riot police in the capital and warned activists to stay within the law on Thursday as hundreds of demonstrators staged more protests against tough austerity measures backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Large demonstrations in the summer over an unpopular IMF-backed tax bill brought down the previous government. Protesters have been holding sporadic demonstrations for the past two weeks and a judicial source said authorities had detained several people for chanting slogans critical of King Abdullah II as well as the Government.

The Telegraph  Financial Times and Reuters  report that talks in Sweden between Yemen’s warring parties on Thursday led to a major breakthrough in blunting a devastating war that has killed thousands and driven the country to famine. The Telegraph reports that both sides agreed to a ceasefire in a key port that acts as a lifeline for millions. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced that the Iran-linked Houthi rebels, who control Hodeidah port, had reached a ceasefire with the Saudi-led coalition that was massing troops in the Red Sea city ahead of a final push into the port. In a statement released near the end of peace talks this week in Sweden, Guterres said that UN troops would be dispatched to Hodeidah, where the organisation will also help distribute much-needed aid. The ceasefire will hold both in the city of Hodeidah, which is the principal life-line for two-thirds of the country, and the broader province, the UN chief added. A “mutual understanding” was also struck in the nation’s embattled third city of Taiz, although few details were released.

The Telegraph and Independent report that clashes broke out in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday after the Israeli army entered the city hunting for a Palestinian gunman who killed two soldiers at a bus stop. The morning attack, which followed days of violence in the West Bank, took place at a bus stop near a settlement where a Palestinian man stepped out of his car and opened fire on soldiers and civilians, the Israeli army said. Two others were wounded, one of them critically, while the attacker fled the scene. Israeli forces later encircled Ramallah, sealing off access roads, raiding neighbourhoods and clashing with Palestinian demonstrators in several spots. Soldiers also shot dead a Palestinian in what the army said was an attempted car ramming in the Al-Bireh neighbourhood of Ramallah. In a separate attack, an assailant stabbed two Israeli border police in Jerusalem’s Old City before being shot dead, in the most turbulent 24 hours in the West Bank and Jerusalem in months.

The Guardian reports that Palestinian leaders are lobbying Arab and other Muslim states to drop Australian exports and withdraw their ambassadors from Canberra in the event the Coalition Government moves Australia’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. This Saturday Australia’s Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, is expected to announce in an address to the Sydney Institute whether the country will move its embassy from Tel Aviv. Morrison announced the possible embassy move in October before the Wentworth by-election, but has since struggled to contain a backlash from Indonesia and other majority Muslim states. The Cabinet is understood to have debated the embassy move this week.

Reuters reports that Syrian fighters backed by the US have driven ISIS from the town of Hajin in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitoring group said on Friday. Hajin is the last big town held by ISIS in its remaining pocket of territory east of the Euphrates River near the border with Iraq. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG militia, has been battling to finish off ISIS for several months in the area.

The Independent reports that two babies have died in the past week at a camp for displaced people in southern Syria, where tens of thousands have been cut off from vital food supplies and medical care. The exact cause of the deaths of the babies is unknown, but the UN children’s agency said they fell ill due to the “harsh conditions” in the desert camp as winter approaches. “Freezing temperatures and lack of supplies, including basic commodities, threaten the lives of nearly 45,000 people – among them children – leaving them at the risk of disease and death,” said Geert Cappelaere, Unicef’s Middle East and North Africa director. Rukban camp, on the border between Syria and Jordan, lies in an area ostensibly controlled by the US military, which operates a base nearby. But access on the ground is blocked by Jordan on one side and Syrian forces on the other. Complicating things even further, are a number of armed factions operating inside, which has made securing aid deliveries extremely difficult.

Reuters reports that up to 15,000 Syrian rebels are ready to join a Turkish military offensive against US-backed Kurdish forces in northeast Syria, but no date has been set for the operation, a spokesman for the main Turkish-backed Syrian rebel group said on Thursday. President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey would launch the offensive in a few days, targeting a border region east of the Euphrates River, which is held by the YPG Kurdish militia. The announcement prompted a sharp rebuke from the Pentagon, which said any unilateral military action into northeast Syria would be unacceptable.

The former archbishop of Canterbury and chair of Christian Aid, Rowan Williams writes in the Guardian today, arguing that Britain’s “direct complicity in the war in Yemen must end”.

Reuters reports that Israel is to legalise thousands of settler homes built in the occupied West Bank, some of them decades ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. The move is likely to please pro-settler members of Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition while angering Palestinians, who want the West Bank as part of a future state. “Arranging the rights for the homes allows thousands of residents to be provided with infrastructure of public buildings, educational and religious buildings,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. It did not give a specific number of homes but Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked tweeted that more than 2,000 homes would be legalised.

The Israeli media all lead on the recent terrorist attacks in the West Bank.  The top story on Army Radio and Kan radio news this morning was of the funeral details of two IDF soldiers killed yesterday in a shooting attack near Givat Assaf who will be buried this morning.

Maariv reports that 1,000 demonstrators gathered outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem and called on him to take immediate measures to increase security in Judea and Samaria.  “We’re done being silent. Our blood is forfeit. We’re tired of dying,” cried out the demonstrators in Paris Square. The demonstrators booed loudly every time Netanyahu’s name was mentioned.  Earlier in the day, settlers held a protest along Route 60, the site of yesterday’s terrorist attack, and clashes broke out between demonstrators and Palestinian drivers. Kan radio news reports Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan said local authorities in Judea and Samaria would strike on Sunday until the government employs its full might to restore security and deterrence. Dagan demanded that roadblocks be restored immediately and that reprisal actions be taken against the PA. Commenting in Yediot Ahronot, Nahum Barnea writes: “When the residents of the Gaza periphery raised an outcry and set out on a march, demonstrated in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the government didn’t take them seriously. They are far from the powerbrokers; a large percentage of them vote for opposition parties. But when the settler lobby raises an outcry, the Likud ministers break into a sweat. Netanyahu is currently free from American pressure.”

Yoav Limor, writing in Israel Hayom, suggests we shouldn’t be surprised by the wave of terrorism that erupted this week.  “Anyone who has been monitoring the data in the last few months could see a clear trend: the efforts to carry out terror attacks were on a constant rise and it was only the Shin Bet and IDF’s extensive preventive efforts that prevented mass casualties up until now.” In his assessment, “the main reason for this is Hamas, which is investing enormous efforts inciting the West Bank and encouraging terrorism. This effort has been going on for over a year and it included handling dozens of cells and paying activists and purchasing weapons….Hamas has three goals: “revenge” for the situation in Gaza, undermining the status of the Palestinian Authority and establishing its own standing as an alternative, as well as maintaining the jihad against Israel. The top political-security ranks tend to steer clear of imposing collective punishment on the population, such as a separation on the roads and large-scale closures (the closure on Ramallah is pinpoint and it is because of the series of terror attacks that came from there), because the Palestinian public, in the main, is not involved in terrorism and is preoccupied by economic matters and not with political aspirations. The fear is that hurting its daily life could lead to widespread clashes and be counterproductive.”  He concludes, “Past experience shows that when Israel has focused its operational and intelligence efforts and acted cool-headedly, it successfully blocked waves of terrorism. Let us hope that will happen this time too.”

Maariv reports a range of political responses. The National Union Party, a faction within the Jewish Home convened for an emergency meeting in Givat Assaf, the site of the terrorist attack yesterday. MK Bezalel Smotrich said: “If Netanyahu doesn’t order roads in Judea and Samaria closed to Arab traffic today, the blood of the murder victims is on his hands personally. Anyone who prioritises the Arabs’ quality of life over Jews’ actual lives isn’t worthy of being prime minister. Netanyahu, the time has come to divorce from the Palestinians. If they continue to move about freely on the roads and to slaughter us like ducks, there is no justification for this government’s continuing to exist for even a single additional day. If there are terror attacks—there are no Arabs on the roads. It’s so simple, so logical, so surreal that this even needs to be explained.” Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett said he will propose a new law to deport the families of terrorists. “The terrorists have stopped being afraid,” he said. “If the legal authorities have tied the prime minister’s hands (and are preventing him) from restoring deterrence—we’ll do that ourselves, despite the staunch opposition of the jurists who surround Netanyahu. If we don’t act immediately, we’ll see this wave of terrorism expand.”  Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni said yesterday during a tour of northern Israel: “Today it is clear that we can’t continue to pay Hamas with suitcases full of money and hope that ‘everything will be all right.’ Slogans, such as ‘let the IDF win’ haven’t done any good. Israel has lost control over security and a different defence strategy is needed that will stop the deterioration and will provide a long-term solution. We need to act firmly against terrorism—demolish homes, and restore deterrence. Alongside that deterrence and alongside the counterterrorism activity, Israel needs to advance processes with moderates.”

Haaretz reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu intends to legalise thousands of Jewish homes in the West Bank. The Prime Minister’s Office said it would promote the construction of 82 new housing units in the settlement of Ofra, as well as two new industrial zones near the settlements of Avnei Hefetz and Betar Ilit. Haaretz says: “On Sunday, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation is expected to discuss a bill to legalise a series of outposts and settlements. The proposal seeks to supply settlements, whose status has yet to be confirmed, with services that would prevent their demolition until they receive official status. The committee, headed by a former head of the Yesha Council of settlements, Pinchas Wallerstein, was set up last year but has yet to meet.”

Kan radio news reports that Australia will announce on Saturday that it recognises Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Earlier reports said that, even if Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared this, he did not intend to relocate the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem because of the high cost and for security reasons.  Morrison is likely to find himself in an election campaign next year and he believes that recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital will help him attract Jewish and conservative Christian voters and strengthen his position vis-a-vis the White House.

Maariv reports that the Prime Minister will appoint a new foreign minister and minister for immigration and absorption within a month.

Yediot Ahronot reports that the United Nations Security Council will hold a meeting next Wednesday to discuss the Hezbollah attack tunnels uncovered by the IDF.  The meeting, called by the US at Israel’s request, will also deal with Hezbollah’s alleged violations of un Resolution 1701. The resolution, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah and an end to its activities in southern Lebanon.