The Daily Mail reports that a 2,700-year-old clay seal found in Jerusalem may bear the “signature” of the biblical prophet Isaiah. Researchers  believe the Hebrew script impressed into the clay once read “belonging to Isaiah the prophet.” If it did, the clay would be the first direct evidence of the existence Isaiah outside of the Bible. Archaeologists discovered the damaged clay seal during excavations at the Ophel, and area in East Jerusalem in between the “City of David” archaeological site and the “Temple Mount”.

The Times reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused by his former Chief of Staff Shlomo Filber of ordering him to intervene in a major corruption inquiry to help a telecoms firm. Filber told police that the Israeli leader demanded that he give Bezeq, the telecoms group, preferential treatment. According to legal sources, Filber signed a state’s witness agreement with the justice ministry on Tuesday granting him immunity. Police believe that the relationship between Netanyahu and Shaul Elovitch, the biggest shareholder in Bezeq, constituted bribery. Elovitch, with his wife and son and two senior Bezeq executives were arrested for questioning on Sunday. The Daily Mail via AFP reports on the options available to Netanyahu in the wake of the corruption allegations. They believe the likely scenario is that he will stay put, while early elections, resignation or a temporary resignation are also offered as potential options.

Most major news outlets including the Times, BBC News Online, the Telegraph,  the Daily Mail, the Financial Times and the Guardian are covering the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ghouta. According to reports, the medical system in Eastern Ghouta is near collapse, medics and doctors say, after nearly a week of airstrikes that have hit 22 hospitals and clinics and led to widespread claims that civilian healthcare in the besieged area is being systematically annihilated. About 400 people have been killed in the Eastern Ghouta enclave, near Damascus, in five days, activists say. Britain and its Western allies on Thursday urged Russia to support calls for a ceasefire in Syria and an end to the “brutal and merciless” assault on the suburb. Britain, America and other allies were backing a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution proposed by Sweden and Kuwait that aims to implement a call by António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, for a 30-day truce, the delivery of aid and safe passage for the injured. Russia called for changes to the resolution, with its UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya calling for “feasible” not “populist” action.  According to the BBC News Online, Western diplomats accused Russia of stalling for time in the UNSC. The UNSC in New York is due to vote on the resolution on Friday at 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT).

The Independent reports that seven Eritreans who have had their asylum petitions rejected have been jailed indefinitely by Israel after refusing deportation to Rwanda. The men are the first to be detained since the Israeli authorities announced an initiative last November to make thousands of African migrants and asylum seekers choose between deportation to a third country or face an unspecified amount of jail time.

The Daily Mail reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that intelligence provided by his country foiled a plot by the Islamic State group to bring down a plane from Australia. The explosive device inside a meat grinder was reportedly hidden in a bag and due to be taken on board an Etihad flight from Sydney last July. Federal home affairs minister Peter Dutton said the planned attack on the A380 airliner would have ‘killed hundreds’ had it been detonated.

The Daily Mail via AFP reports that the scramble for gas in the Eastern Mediterranean is fuelling hope and tensions across a volatile region. Israel has been setting the pace ever since it made the first find in the region in 2009. Netanyahu appeared jubilant — and vindicated — as he hailed a “historic” $15bn deal to export gas to Egypt on 19 February. “Many people did not believe in the gas plan,” he said in a video, “this is a joyous day.” After years of debilitating political deadlock Lebanon earlier this month signed its first exploration deal with a consortium of Italian, French and Russian firms. The agreement includes a block on the disputed maritime border that Israeli officials insist belongs to the Jewish state. The United States has dispatched a senior official to try to mediate, but as the two sides spar the war-of-words is ratcheting up.

The Israeli media continues to focus on the police investigations involving the Prime Minister.

Ma’ariv reports that Netanyahu is to be questioned concurrently in both the Submarine and Bezeq Affairs (Case 3000 and 4000). Israel Hayom reports statements by the Prime Minister to his associates that: “the truth will prevail”

Yediot Ahronot follows up a Channel Ten News report that the tape of Walla News owner Shaul Elovich, in which he is allegedly heard telling his Editor to publish favourable coverage of the Netanyahus served as a “tiebreaker” for the Attorney General that enabled a covert investigation to be conducted against the people involved in Case 4,000. According to the report, Mandelblit was very hesitant on the question whether the affair required a police investigation, but the recordings persuaded him that an investigation into the matter was necessary.

Maariv quotes a high-ranking Likud minister who believes the investigation into the new allegations against the Prime Minister will further delay Attorney General Mandelblit’s decision on whether to indict Netanyahu in the other cases in which he is a suspect. “It’s natural for the Attorney General not to make gradual decisions, but to make decisions about the whole story [all the cases] together, and that lengthens the period of time that the matter is subject to his deliberation”

Maariv, Haaretz and Israel Hayom have front page reports on the appointment of two new Supreme Court Justices.

Haaretz report that a Palestinian was killed during an arrest in Jericho, with soldiers filmed beating him as he lay on the ground during an arrest. Yediot Ahronot writes about the “conflicting versions about the circumstances of the incident, with the Palestinians claiming that he died as a result of blows that he sustained from the soldiers in the process of the arrest, and with the IDF contending that he was a terrorist armed with a crowbar and a knife who was injured after he tried to attack the soldiers.”

Kan Radio News reports that Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with senior officials from the board of governors of the Jewish Agency today in order to discuss who will succeed its Chairman Natan Sharansky. The candidates include Minister Yuval Steinitz, Deputy Minister Michael Oren, Ron Prosor and MK Yitzhak Herzog.

Kan Radio News report that the United Torah Judaism ultra-Orthodox party in the Knesset has demanded that new legislation on military conscription and national service be published before next year’s state budget is passed. The second and third votes on the budget are supposed to take place in approximately three weeks, although coalition officials said that there was still no agreed-upon plan to resolve the issue of conscription.

The Times of Israel reports comments from a UN envoy that US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan is nearly ready.