The Telegraph covers comments made yesterday by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that he has given “instructions to do what is necessary” to protect Syria’s Druze minority near Israel’s border. Fears have grown among Israel’s own Druze community that their Syrian brethren are under increasing threat from Islamist opposition groups. Reports indicate that a Druze village near the Israel-Syria border is now surrounded by Islamist fighters.

The Financial Times includes a feature on the ongoing war of words between Culture Minister Miri Regev, considered a firebrand on the right-wing of the Likud Party, and a group of artists over the limits to her ministry’s budget. Regev has insisted that she will decide on allocations and that her ministry is not obliged to fund projects which she believes denigrate the State of Israel. Some artists have publicly accused her of censorship and stifling free expression.

The Times reports that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas met with PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah yesterday to begin the process of dissolving the unity government with Hamas and appointing a new government. The PA and Hamas agreed the current administration in April 2014, which signalled the end to US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the PA. However, relations between the PA and Hamas have remained strained and in practice the two sides have not shared power in Gaza or the West Bank.

The Independent online reports that the Knesset has extended a law in existence since 2003, which prevents Palestinians who marry Israelis from automatically living in Israel. The law is intended to prevent terrorists from entering Israel through marriage.

In the Independent and Independent i, Donald Macintyre says that Israel needs to allow an independent investigation of the IDF’s conduct during Operation Protective Edge and that doing so would better serve the country’s interests than being seen to consistently oppose United Nations investigations.

In Syria, the Times online reports that government planes bombed a mosque in the town of Ghariya, killing at least 20 children.

Syria is also a major item in the Israeli media this morning. The top story in both Maariv and Haaretz focuses on heavy fighting intensifying in Syria adjacent to Israel’s border and in particular the threat it poses to Syria’s Druze population, which has many family ties to Israel’s Druze community. Yediot Ahronot includes a column by retired Druze IDF officer, Kamil Wahabe who asks whether given that “members of the Druze community fought and died for the sake of Israel’s security; won’t it intervene on behalf of our brethren?”

Yediot Ahronot and Israel Radio news cover a letter sent by Kulanu leader, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon to US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro. In the letter, Kahlon entirely distanced himself from comments made in recent days by Kulanu MK and Israel’s former-Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, who has claimed in a new book that President Obama deliberately eroded the US-Israel relationship. According to Yediot Ahronot, Kahlon was told by American officials that such a public repudiation of Oren’s views was expected.

Israel Radio news this morning says that an overnight fire was extinguished at the Church of the Loaves and Fishes, near Lake Kinneret. In Christian tradition it is thought to be the site of Jesus’ miracle of the fishes and loaves and the church houses rare, ancient mosaics. Little damage was caused, but police are investigating arson after offensive graffiti was found at the site.