Louisiana could become the first state in the country to categorize mifepristone and misoprostol — the drugs used to induce an abortion — as controlled dangerous substances, threatening incarceration and fines if an individual possesses the pills without a valid prescription or outside of professional practice.

Legislators in Baton Rouge added the provision as a last-minute amendment to a Senate bill that would criminalize an abortion if someone gives a pregnant woman the pills without her consent, a scenario of “coerced criminal abortion” that nearly occurred with one senator’s sister.

A pregnant woman obtaining the two drugs “for her own consumption” would not be at risk of prosecution. But, with the exception of a health-care practitioner, a person helping her get the pills would be.

Louisiana already bans both medication and surgical abortions except to save a patient’s life or because a pregnancy is “medically futile.” Lawmakers just rejected adding exceptions for teenagers under 17 who become pregnant through rape or incest.

Proposal accepted by Hamas includes hostage release and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza

The proposed agreement mediated by Qatar and Egypt and accepted by Hamas starts with the release of 33 Israeli hostages over 42 days and ends with the rebuilding of Gaza amid “a period of sustainable calm,” according to a document shared with CNN by a source in the region familiar with negotiations.

The copy of the framework details that the agreement will be divided into three phases, each 42 days long. It will also include an eventual full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in the second phase, according to the document and Hamas senior official Khalil Al-Hayya, who spoke to Al Jazeera.

Here's a breakdown of each phase:

The first phase

• This phase says Hamas will release 33 hostages — specifically women, children, elderly and those sick — in exchange for a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of Gaza, the halting of reconnaissance flights for 10 hours daily, the free movement of disarmed Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
• In this phase, 30 Palestinian women and children will be released for every Israeli hostage released by Hamas, and 30 Palestinian prisoners over the age of 50 for every Israeli hostage over the age of 50.
• Female IDF soldiers are to be released as part of the 33 hostages, but for every Israel Defense Forces woman soldier released, Israel is to release 50 Palestinian prisoners, including 30 serving life sentences.
• Every week Hamas will release three hostages. On the sixth and final week, the rest of the hostages are to be released to fulfill the 33 number agreed upon, according to the document. The agreement also says that Hamas could include the bodies of dead hostages to reach the 33 number.
• An extensive effort will begin for the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including makeshift shelters and homes, and the rehabilitation of key infrastructure, including hospitals and the electric plant, the document says.

The second phase

• The document did not fully expand on the details of the second phase of the agreement, which is set to include a “sustainable period of calm” in Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages, including civilian men and IDF male soldiers.

The third phase

• A three-to-five-year Gaza rebuilding plan is to start in this phase, according to the document.

The latest surge in violence comes as the RSF encircles North Darfur’s capital, El Fasher.

In the city and its surrounding localities, there have been “increasing arbitrary killings,” systematic “burning of entire villages” and “escalating air bombardments,” the UN deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Toby Hayward, said on Thursday.

Hayward added that El Fasher is the only city in Darfur that has not been captured by the RSF and hosts thousands of people who have been displaced by the war. At least 500,000 of those sheltering in the city have been displaced from violence elsewhere in Sudan, according to the UN’s children’s agency (UNICEF).

More than 36,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in El Fasher in recent weeks, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

At least 43 people have been killed in and around the city since the escalation of fighting a little over two weeks ago, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said on Thursday.

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“Recent attacks on more than a dozen villages in western El Fasher have resulted in horrific reports of violence, including sexual violence, children injured and killed, homes set on fire, and destruction of critical civilian supplies and infrastructure,” Russell detailed.

Meanwhile, deliveries of food assistance in Darfur “have been intermittent due to fighting and endless bureaucratic hurdles” and at least 1.7 million people within the region are experiencing emergency levels of hunger, according to the World Food Programme.