The Independent i reports that the United Nations (UN) Security Council has called on Syrian government forces and rebel fighters to stop fighting in the buffer zone on the border between Syria and Israel. Fighting from the Syrian Civil War has spilled over onto the border during the past few months, with occasional stray fire crossing into Israel. The Security Council request came as it unanimously extended the mandate of the UN observer force which has patrolled the border since 1974.

In a Guardian online opinion piece, in his role as head of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband appeals to the international community for much more aid to be sent to Syria, where the conflict is a “cruel mix of modern and medieval.”

Meanwhile, the Financial Times online covers a World Bank report which says that the Syrian Civil War and the fight against ISIS has cost the region £22 billion. The report says that trade which had been growing in the region has been stifled by the conflicts, especially in Lebanon and also Jordan and Egypt.

The Times online reports that 600 male teenagers, aged 14 to 17 years old are being held in a squalid, freezing Egyptian prison, having been accused of allegedly joining terror groups, blocking roads and assaulting police officers. Their families also claim that the youngsters have been tortured.

In the Telegraph online, Peter Oborne criticises Prime Minister David Cameron’s address this week at a Conservative Friends of Israel event and says that Cameron’s views on Palestinian statehood are not in tandem with British public opinion.

An editorial in the Guardian reflects on this week’s American rapprochement with Cuba and asks whether President Obama will display the same sense of adventurous foreign policy problem solving elsewhere in the world. However, the editorial concludes that there are “powerful reasons to doubt he can pull it off” regarding relations with Iran.

In the Israeli media, most dailies and especially Maariv cover the ongoing response to Jordan’s submission of a draft UN Security Council resolution on behalf of the Palestinian leadership which would mandate an Israeli West Bank withdrawal. The United States yesterday confirmed that they would not support such a motion and Prime Minister Netanyahu warned that enacting the resolution would lead to a Hamas West Bank takeover.

The top story in Israel Hayom, which is also covered prominently by Haaretz and Maariv is the new recordings cleared for publication by the Supreme Court in connection with a bribery case against former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The recordings which were apparently made by Olmert’s former senior aide Shula Zaken appear to reveal Olmert offering Zaken $10,000 for each month that she serves in prison, if she take the blame for wrongdoing in the so-called “Holyland” bribery case.

Meanwhile, the top story in Yediot Ahronot, which is also a major item in Israel Hayom, is the questioning under caution by military police yesterday of the Givati Brigade’s commander. Col. Ofer Winter is suspected of having covered up suspicions of sexual harassment by one of his battalion commanders and a number of other cases of misconduct within his brigade.

Haaretz reports that Labour leader Isaac Herzog and Hatnuah head Tzipi Livni have agreed to let potential coalition partners decide if they will rotate the Prime Ministership, if their joint electoral list heads the next government. They had originally announced that Herzog would serve an initial two years before handing over to Livni. In other election-related news, Israel Radio says that a decision will be taken on Saturday night by Housing Minister Uri Ariel’s Tkumah faction over whether to remain as part of Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party or not.