The Guardian reports that a UN expert on executions is to travel to Turkey next week to lead an “independent international inquiry” into the death of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian journalist killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October. Agnes Callamard, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said she would evaluate the circumstances of the crime and “the nature and the extent of states’ and individuals’ responsibilities for the killing”. She will report on the findings from her five-day visit to the UN human rights council in June. In an email to Reuters, Callamard said the inquiry was being conducted at her request and that she would be accompanied by three experts, who have forensic expertise among other skills. She declined to name the experts for now.

Robert Fisk writes in the Independent, asking: “Why American figures like Michelle Alexander are breaking their silence on Israel”. Alexander, a civil rights lawyer and academic last week wrote an Op-ed in the New York Times arguing that Israel must return East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and Golan and launched what Fisk calls a “long, eloquent rather patronising, self-indulgent but courageous condemnation of Israel’s outrageous treatment of the Palestinians”.

The Financial Times reports that the shortage of men in a time of conflict in Syria has seen more women enter the workforce. The government’s military campaign and sweeping conscription efforts have created a demographic crisis. Of the nearly 500,000 people killed during the war, some 80 per cent were men, according to the Syrian Centre for Policy Research (SCPR), which found male life expectancy fell from 70 years in 2010 to 48 by 2015. Men aged 15-24 have experienced the sharpest decline in life expectancy. Millions more young men have sought refuge in neighbouring countries and Europe, fearing conscription or retribution if they return. This has had huge social and economic implications. Women are now the primary breadwinner and carer in about one-third of Syrian households, according to the UN women’s agency.

Bloomberg reports that a plan to stop companies in Ireland trading with firms or people based in West Bank settlements moved a step closer to becoming law on Thursday, after lawmakers backed it in the latest stage of the legislative process. The proposal, which aims to prohibit the purchase of goods or services produced in settlements, passed the so-called second stage in the Irish parliament by 78 votes to 45. Ireland’s minority government opposed the bill, which passed with support from opposition parties and independent lawmakers. Several steps remain before the proposal would become law, during which it could be altered or effectively killed. The bill is “not legally sound,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said in parliament Wednesday. “These are issues we need to discuss at an EU level.”

The Guardian reports that Israeli prosecutors have charged a 16-year-old Israeli settler with manslaughter after he was accused of throwing a rock at a speeding car and killing a Palestinian woman. According to the indictment, the suspect deliberately targeted the family car on 12 October in the West Bank in an anti-Arab attack “as part of an act of terror”. The teenager, who has not been named, was also charged with intentional sabotage of a vehicle “under terrorist circumstances” after his DNA was found on the 2kg rock. Lawyers for the suspect have claimed he was not connected to the incident. Aisha Rabi, 48, a mother of eight, was travelling home along a highway late at night when the jagged rock plummeted down from a hill. Her eight-year-old daughter was in the back seat and her husband, who was driving, told the Guardian he believed it was a hate crime.

The Financial Times reports that the US is looking to undercut Iranian activities in Syria by sanctioning a pair of militia groups and an Iranian airline. The Treasury Department on Thursday said it was designating two Syria-based, Iran-backed militias, as well as an Iranian airline it said was linked to Mahan Air, which it has already sanctioned. The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said it was designating Fatemiyoun Division and Zaynabiyoun Brigade for providing “material support” to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force. In addition, OFAC is designating Qeshm Fars Air for being owned or controlled by Mahan Air, which the US sanctioned back in 2011. An Armenian sales agent is also being targeted for providing services to Mahan Air, Treasury said. Germany has banned Mahan Air from flying in and out of the country.

The Guardian reports that three years after the disappearance, torture and murder of Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni in Cairo, Egypt is stonewalling Italy’s efforts to investigate. In November, Italian prosecutors officially named five members of Egypt’s security services as subject to investigation in the case of Regeni, who went missing on 25 January 2016 aged 28. But two months on, Egypt has barely acknowledged the development. “The Rome prosecution has done everything in our ability. The situation is one of stalemate,” chief prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone told an Italian parliamentary body that oversees the secret service last week. “We have asked justice for Regeni,” the Italian interior minister, Matteo Salvini, told a press conference on Wednesday. “Next time I’ll run for president in Egypt,” he said, implying this would be the only way to achieve this. “But I trust the Italian prosecutors, and I trust the Egyptians,” he added.

Reuters reports that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on Friday called on Saudi Arabia to allow independent monitors to meet detainees, including women’s rights activists, who were allegedly tortured and prominent figures held in an anti-corruption campaign. A group of British lawmakers threatened to publish their own report detailing allegations of mistreatment unless Riyadh grants them access to the women detainees by next week.

The Financial Times reports that supporters of Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi are calling for him to stay in power beyond the end of his second term in 2022 amid signs the authorities are considering constitutional changes to extend his rule. In recent weeks Sisi’s supporters have been clamouring for an overhaul of the four-year-old constitution, arguing that a change in leadership would destabilise the country and set back the fight against Isis in the Sinai. Mohamed Abu Hamed, a member of the assembly for the pro-regime Support Egypt Coalition, predicted that constitutional reforms would be proposed in parliament this year and approved without difficulty by lawmakers.

Reuters reports that according to UN diplomats on Thursday, the head of a United Nations mission tasked with overseeing a peace deal in Yemen’s Hodeidah port city plans to step down next month and will be replaced with a Danish official. Retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert arrived in Hodeidah late last month to lead an advance team of monitors observing a ceasefire and redeployment of forces agreed by the Iranian-aligned Houthi group and Saudi-backed Yemen government forces. Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United Nations plans to replace Cammaert next month with Danish Major General Michael Anker Lollesgaard, who led a UN peacekeeping mission in Mali in 2015 and 2016.

In the Israeli media Yediot Ahronot and Maariv report the high state of alert ahead of a potential escalation on the Gaza border today. Israel Hayom writes that Iran was humiliated in the north and is seeking revenge via Gaza.

Maariv writes that ahead of the “traditional” Friday demonstrations, this time there is a concrete fear that Islamic Jihad members in Gaza will fire on Israeli territory. “Iron Dome batteries have been stationed in the greater Tel Aviv area in order to defend Ben Gurion Airport from missile fire from the north or the south. Iron Dome reservists were specifically called up to provide reinforcements in view of the situation, and Hamas has also beefed up its forces in case of a conflagration.” They also quote IDF Arabic Media Spokesperson Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee telling residents of the Gaza Strip on social media: “In recent weeks, we have discerned that Islamic Jihad is increasingly trying to undermine the security situation in the Gaza Strip, which the latest incidents on the Gaza border have proved,” he said. “This grave activity is endangering security stability and the attempts to bring about an improvement in the civilian situation in the Gaza Strip. Residents of Gaza, Islamic Jihad is putting you and your safety in jeopardy. There is no doubt as to where Islamic Jihad’s loyalty lies—the only question is whether its plans to drag you into escalated violence succeed.”

Israel Hayom reports Egypt has demanded that Hamas leader Ismail Haniya decide whether: “Hamas takes orders from Tehran or if it is continuing to implement the truce worked out by Director of Egyptian Intelligence General Abbas Kamel.” According to the paper a senior official in Egyptian intelligence said the Hamas leadership has relayed a message to Israel saying: “Hamas had no part in the serious incidents on the border.” Hamas also asked him to “prevent a delay in relaying the money from Qatar.” Hamas even said: “Hamas will not disregard Islamic Jihad’s provocations, which it carried out at Tehran’s direct orders.”

Shimrit Meir writes in Yediot Ahronot about the Hamas’s perspective: “The third phase of the Qatari money was delayed by more than two weeks and it displayed restraint; it politely explained to Egypt that the provocations on the border were because of Islamic Jihad; and it refrained from responding with rocket fire even though they had one fatality.” She also notes: “The Qataris now are also far less enthusiastic about their role as a mobile ATM—even if tens of millions here and there don’t particularly affect their bank account, they are starting to realise that this is a bottomless pit—mainly in the matter of the electricity. Furthermore, transferring the cash directly to Hamas risks Qatar’s being put on the blacklists of countries that support terrorism, and in exchange for all this, they receive hate mail on social media from Palestinians who accuse them of collaborating with Israel.”

Maariv reports that Labor leader Avi Gabbay called the Government decision to authorise the transfer of Qatari funds “disgraceful.” He said: “Netanyahu is bribing Hamas with $15 million, but even the terrorists aren’t willing to accept the cash-filled briefcases. Netanyahu is debasing our national honour. This situation can be changed by combining security measures with diplomatic alliances with the moderate Arab states, and that is what we will do.” Haim Jelin of Yesh Atid and a former head of the Eshkol regional council said: “There is no leadership, no deterrence and no capability. The spineless security cabinet keeps issuing statements as if it were just accepting recommendations from the security establishment and not making policy decisions itself.”

Kan radio reports on the police investigation into the death of Aisha al Rabi and additional evidence against the teenager who has been charged. In addition to the DNA sample that was found on the stone that caused her death, the Shin Bet and the police tapped the phones of the defendant and other yeshiva students for weeks in the interval between the incident and the arrest of the suspects. In one of the tapped calls, one of the suspects called his mother a few days after the stone-throwing and told her that he intended to remain silent under questioning so that his friend would not spend 20 years in prison. The defendant’s phone has what the State Attorney’s Office described as an unusual collection of footage of so-called “price tag” incidents and calls for revenge. The defendant was arrested a day before the stone-throwing near the scene of the incident during a violent demonstration, where he fought with the Border Police.

In election news, Haaretz assesses that almost all of the parties in the present government coalition are willing to join a new government headed by Netanyahu after the election – even if Attorney General Mendelblit decides to recommend indicting against him. They quote Shas leader Arye Deri saying Netanyahu, “will continue to be prime minister as far as Shas is concerned as long as the law allows for it.” Similarly they also note Naftali Bennett saying, “We will wait for the attorney general’s decision after a hearing and only then will the party’s Knesset members meet and make a decision. The law states that the prime minister is not required to resign until after a final verdict, and the rationale is that we want judicial oversight of a decision that can replace the government.” While Avigdor Lieberman head of Yisrael Beiteinu, said this week that he has no problem joining a new Netanyahu government – as long as he has not been convicted of a crime. “The only institution authorised to decide if a person is innocent or guilty is the court. Until the court rules, as far as I’m concerned, Netanyahu is innocent and I don’t see any problem in sitting in his government” Lieberman said. Moshe Kahlon the head of Kulanu told Army radio yesterday, that he is not committed to supporting Netanyahu for Prime Minister, “It depends on whether another party will appear, not a leftist party, that has a realistic chance to form a government and supports our social agenda.”