The Independent, and ITV News Online all report on the story that US President Donald Trump “may” recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Mail Online reports that Trump is likely to waive a requirement that the US move its Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, but is weighing other options to demonstrate his intent to do so eventually, such as recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The Guardian, Mail Online and the Telegraph all report the Giro d’Italia cycling race has backed down in the row over calling its start area “West Jerusalem”. Israeli ministers had threatened to withdraw Israel’s offer to host the first stage of the for cycling race if the wording was not changed

The Independent reports that Saudi Arabia is willing to abandon the Palestinians to make a deal with Israel against Iran, according to a former Israeli security advisor.

BBC News Online reports on that a Palestinian has been shot dead after an altercation between Israeli settlers and Palestinians near the village of Qusra.

The Guardian reports that the US-led coalition has said that its strikes have killed 800 Iraqi and Syrian civilians since its air campaign began in 2014. However, this number is far lower than those documented by monitoring and human rights groups.

BBC News Online reports that the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Syria says 500 people with urgent medical needs must be evacuated from a besieged rebel-held area near Damascus. The Times also reports the desperate situation for civilians in Eastern Ghouta, where it reports that the Assad regime has bombed starving children in the rebel-held area.

The Guardian and the Telegraph report that a scheme Iran allegedly used to avoid sanctions via a state-owned bank in Turkey has been exposed in court by Reza Zarrab, a Turkish businessman, who claimed the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had been aware of the billion-dollar operation.

BBC News Online reports that the US is to withdraw more than 400 US Marines from Syria after helping to capture the city of Raqqa from ISIS.

The Times reports that Russia is seeking a deal for its forces to use Egyptian airbases, further expanding its influence in the Middle East and North Africa.

The Times also reports that a second missile fired from Yemen has been intercepted and destroyed over Saudi Arabia, according to state media.

The FT reports that an Israeli soldier was stabbed to death in the southern city of Arad late on Thursday, just hours after the Israeli military shelled the Gaza strip in response to mortar fire from Gaza directed at Israeli soldiers on the border.

All the Israeli papers report the stabbing of an Israeli soldier last night in the southern Israeli town of Arad.  It is now believed to have been a terror attack.  The victim, a 19-year-old soldier, died of his wounds and is thought to have had his weapon stolen in the attack. Following the attack, hundreds of soldiers and police were sent to the city and put up barriers in an attempt to find the attacker, who most likely fled by car.  Yediot Ahronot quotes an Arad resident, who said: “Nobody understood what had happened. There was great hysteria. People were shouting, they didn’t know how to handle the situation, the whole city was hysterical. People stayed in their houses, they couldn’t believe that terror had come to Arad.”

All the Israeli papers also focus on a Bar Mitzvah trip in the West Bank which was attacked by stone-throwing Palestinians. Following the altercation, a Palestinian was shot and killed.  Twenty-five students and two parents went hiking near the settlement of Migdalim. According to Haaretz, dozens of Palestinians surrounded the group of Israeli youths hiking in the area and threw rocks at them. One of the adults accompanying the youths drew his gun and, according to his account of events, fired in the air.  The IDF has begun an investigation of the incident and the shooting, in which a Palestinian who was not involved in the incident was killed. Israel Hayom relates the fear that it could have turned into a lynching.  Maariv quotes one of the students, saying: “We were walking and suddenly a lot of Palestinians from Qusra came and threw stones at us.  The guide told us to run quickly into the cave that was there. We went in and heard sounds of stones and shooting. The Palestinians wouldn’t let us out. They took the gun from the guide and threatened us with the gun, making us give them the phones and all the things we had. They beat the guide and threw cinder blocks at his head, and sprayed pepper spray. It took the army an hour and a half to get there, but even when they arrived they didn’t catch the people who took the gun and the bags, and let them get away.”  The paper also notes the Palestinians have a completely different version of events.   Later in the evening, there were further clashes between settlers and Palestinians from the same village.

According to Kan Radio News, the State Department in Washington said that no decision had been made about relocating the American Embassy to Jerusalem. A spokesperson for the State Department told reporters that US President Donald Trump was seriously considering it and that the matter was under discussion by the Secretary of State and the White House. Alternatively, Trump was expected to postpone moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem again but might recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Yediot Ahronot notes the ICC decision to finally close the file and not open a full-scale investigation of the 2010 Israeli raid on the Turkish Mavi Marmara flotilla that tried to break the Gaza blockade.

Haaretz reports that the Russian government published a draft agreement between Russia and Egypt on Thursday allowing both countries to use each other’s airspace and air bases for their military planes.

Yediot Ahronot and Maariv report government and opposition efforts to mobilise all their MKs for Monday’s second and third reading of the recommendations bill.  It is expected to be a fierce confrontation.