The Daily Mail and the Independent report that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has warned that Israel’s planned demolition of a Palestinian Bedouin village in the West Bank could constitute a war crime. Prime Minister Theresa May has said the action would be a “major blow” to the two-state solution. The Independent reports that Fatou Bensouda, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, said on Wednesday she was continuing to “keep a close eye” on developments, as the destruction of Khan al-Ahmar seemed imminent. A few hours later, during Prime Minster’s Questions, May once again urged the Israeli authorities to scrap the idea. Israel’s Supreme Court recently rejected a final appeal against a decision to demolish the village and its famed “tyre school,” which provides education for some 170 children from five different Bedouin communities. The Daily Mail reports that Bensouda said in a written statement, “evacuation by force now appears imminent”. She added: “It bears recalling, as a general matter, that extensive destruction of property without military necessity and population transfers in an occupied territory constitute war crimes” under the Rome Statute treaty that established the ICC. Israel says Khan al-Ahmar was built illegally and has offered to resettle its residents a few miles away. Palestinians and other critics say the demolition aims to displace Palestinians in favour of Israeli settlement expansion.

The Times reports that Israeli warplanes pounded the Gaza Strip after the first missile fire in weeks hit Beersheba. Twenty targets were hit in Gaza in response and a man was killed. Israel closed both border crossings, further isolating the territory where deteriorating conditions have stoked violent protests along the border.

The BBC, the Evening Standard, FT, Sun and the Daily Mail report the murder or Jamal Khashoggi is still an ongoing investigation. Turkish officials suspect the Saudi journalist was killed during a visit to the nearby consulate on 2 October. The BBC reports that the consul, Mohammed al-Otaibi, flew back to Riyadh on Tuesday. He denies knowing what happened to Khashoggi. However, a Turkish newspaper says Otaibi can be heard in purported audio recordings of Khashoggi’s death. Yeni Safak, which is close to the government, quotes him as telling alleged Saudi agents sent to Istanbul: “Do this outside. You’re going to get me in trouble.” The Evening Standard reports that al-Otaibi is said to have been recorded in a seven-minute audio clip during the alleged torture. This development came as world leaders intensified pressure on Riyadh over Khashoggi’s disappearance, as a “frequent companion” of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman was named in reports as a possible suspect. The FT reports that Donald Trump said the US had asked for a recording of Khashoggi’s purported killing “if it exists,” but stressed that Washington did not want to walk away from Saudi Arabia as it comes under mounting pressure over the case.

The Sun reports that the journalist was allegedly carved up with a bone saw while alive in a horrifying seven-minute execution carried out by a “hit squad” listening to music on headphones. Evidence suggests he was tortured to death, dismembered and smuggled out of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in an execution supervised by autopsy specialist Salah Muhammad al-Tubaiqi. The Saudi “Dr Death” was seen in Istanbul while an agent with a bone-cutter tool was said to be part of a 15-strong kill team. The team are alleged to have removed the dismembered body in 15 plastic bags before it was dissolved in acid, according to Turkish media reports. A source told the Washington Post they heard a recording from the writer’s Apple Watch capturing the moment he was allegedly dragged into a study to be drugged and butchered. The Daily Mail reports that the doctor, suspected of brutally dismembering a Saudi journalist while he was still alive, trained at a facility in Melbourne on sponsorship from the Saudi Government, according to reports.

The Telegraph reports that Turkey is failing to control the narrative of the journalist’s death, as well as its relationships with allies suffering. The latest reports are the most damning yet. It is unclear what either side’s next move will be. Both have had to think about how the episode plays domestically and internationally. Turkey cannot afford to sever diplomatic relations with Saudi over the killing, but turning a blind eye to foreign countries carrying out assassinations on its soil would set a dangerous precedent. While at first the Turkish leaks appeared chaotic and at times contradictory, they have become much more consistent and on-message. “One can only imagine that the Turks’ expectations of what Riyadh is going to do have changed,” H.A. Hellyer, a senior non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Council in London, told the New York Times. Turkish investigators on Wednesday searched consul-general Otaibi’s residence. Reporting has suggested that they are likely to find Khashoggi’s severed head and dismembered body in its garden.

The Daly Mail online reports that as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Saudi Arabia Tuesday to discuss the disappearance Khashoggi, a $100m pledge from Saudi arrived in American accounts. “The timing of this is no coincidence,” said an American official who spoke to the New York Times on condition of anonymity. The money was a pledge Saudi Arabia made to the US in August for efforts to stabilise areas in Syria that have been liberated from the Islamic State. The source confirmed the payment had landed in the US account on Tuesday, as Pompeo touched down in Riyadh to meet with the Saudi Crown Prince who is accused of ordering a hit on Khashoggi.

The BBC and FT report that major companies registered for a business conference in Saudi Arabia next week still plan to attend, despite growing pressure for a boycott. The BBC reports that senior executives from firms including Goldman Sachs, Pepsi, Thales and EDF are expected to be there, along with US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. The event was set to feature 150 speakers from 140 organisations. But at least 30 delegates have dropped out since the disappearance Khashoggi. The FT reports that BAE Systems, Britain’s largest defence contractor, plans to send senior executives to an investment conference in Saudi Arabia next week despite growing international condemnation over the suspected murder of Khashoggi.

The Israeli media discuss the escalation in violence emanating from Gaza.  As the missile that struck Beer Sheva occurred around 4am on Wednesday the newspapers cover in it detail today.  Yediot Ahronot notes that the security cabinet convened last night. “The sense among the security cabinet ministers was that had it not been for the courage that was shown by Miri Tamano, the mother from Beer Sheva who pulled her children out of bed and whisked them into the bomb shelter a moment before the rocket struck, “emergency call-up orders would have already been issued,” as one minister put it.”

The Israeli media discusses in detail the possible military responses from the missile attack that struck Beersheva at 4am on Wednesday. Yediot Ahronot says the Security Cabinet convened last night, and that “the sense among the security cabinet ministers was that had it not been for the courage that was shown by Miri Tamano, the mother from Beersheva who pulled her children out of bed and whisked them into the bomb shelter a moment before the rocket struck, emergency call-up orders would have already been issued,” as one minister put it.

In the commentary in Yediot Ahronot, Nahum Barnea writes that the nearly lethal rocket attack on Beersheva “goes to show just how thin the line is that separates a miracle from a calamity. If the rocket attack had resulted in casualties, the political echelon’s manoeuvring room would have been reduced to zero, and Israel would have launched, just like it did four years ago, a military operation that it neither wants nor which it believes will be effective. If the second rocket, the one that was aimed at the greater Tel Aviv area, hadn’t landed in the Mediterranean Sea, the IDF’s tank and infantry brigades would now be in the midst of preparations for an incursion. It isn’t only the Gazans who are held hostage by the rocket launchers, but Israel too”.

Israel Hayom questions the Hamas denial that it fired the rockets: “Hamas is supposed to closely oversee the use of its rockets, certainly the rockets it considers to be strategic. If it did not (and it is clear that it did not), then one of two things happened: either it turned a blind eye with a wink [to the people who fired it without formal authorisation], which does not appear to be the case, or it doesn’t have control over its own troops. This is a worrying situation, because the assumption that has guided Israel’s actions vis-à-vis Gaza in the last few months was that Hamas is the only boss in town. Depending on what Hamas wants to accomplish, it either raises or lowers the height of flames. This last incident is liable to demonstrate that Hamas is losing control; and if the case—Israel’s dilemma ostensibly becomes easier because it means that it can’t trust that future agreements—if any are reached—will actually be implemented.”

Maariv also discusses Hamas’s hold on the Gaza Strip. It say: “It seems that the decision to fire rockets ‘without leaving any fingerprints’ was made by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in order to send a double message, one to Egypt and one to Israel. The rocket fire was designed to signal to the Egyptians that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not pleased with the pace of their mediation efforts, which have failed to deliver any results in all that pertains to lifting the siege on the Gaza Strip … Hamas’s leadership is furious with Egypt, which has refused for more than a year to allow senior Hamas officials to leave the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing to visit Qatar, Turkey and Iran.” The paper adds that this is not the first time Hamas has used supposed “rogue organisations” to send messages to Egypt and Israel. It is a well-known tactic that is used by Hamas, which takes pains to maintain extensive compartmentalisation so as to keep that activity from being discovered by Israeli and Egyptian intelligence. “Actions of this sort allow it, on the one hand, to send the message it wants while, on the other, it can deny its responsibility.”

Kan radio news has an update on the manhunt of the Palestinian terrorist Ashraf Naalwa, who committed the terror attack in the Barkan industrial zone. According to Hamas sources cited on social media, the IDF operated in the Manshiya neighbourhood in the Nur a-Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm a short while ago. They reported that the soldiers entered a number of houses and called on Naalwa, on loudspeakers, to turn himself in. There were similar reports in the website of the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper. The reports also said that the IDF patrol left empty-handed after arresting a Palestinian named Walid Asfur.

Haaretz reports on a poll from the US that shows an overwhelming majority of US Jews plan to vote for Democratic candidates in the upcoming midterm elections. According to the poll, President Donald Trump’s policies on the Israeli-Palestinian issue have garnered him almost no additional Jewish support. “The poll, conducted by pollster Mark Mellman on behalf of the Jewish Electorate Institute, included interviews with 800 American Jews from different religious streams and geographical areas. The most significant result in the poll: 74 per cent of respondents said they plan to vote for a Democratic candidate in their districts in the upcoming 6 November midterm elections. In contrast, only 26 per cent plan to vote for Republican candidates.”