The BBC, Financial Times, Guardian, Sky News, the Telegraph, Independent  and the Times report that Israel has carried out strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, hours after a rocket hit a house north of Tel Aviv. The BBC reports that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said the office of Hamas’s political leader and the group’s military intelligence headquarters were among the targets. Gaza’s health ministry said seven people were injured in the strikes. Air strikes continued overnight. Dozens of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, Israel said, and air raid sirens sounded across southern Israel. The IDF had earlier blamed Hamas, which controls Gaza, for the launch of the rocket that hit the Israeli community of Mishmeret, injuring seven people. “Israel will not tolerate this, I will not tolerate this,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters during a ceremony in Washington. “Israel is responding forcefully to this wanton aggression,” Netanyahu added. He later cut short his US visit and returned to Israel. Trump denounced the attack as “despicable” and said the US “recognises Israel’s absolute right to defend itself”. So far no Palestinian militant group has said it fired the rocket. One unnamed Hamas official said it had “no interest” in doing so. The Times reports that sources in Gaza said that the locally built J80 rocket had been fired by mistake but it is not clear whether this was the case. In the Independent, Bel Trew writes that airstrikes and rocket fire across the Israel-Gaza border overnight have crushed hopes of an Egypt-brokered ceasefire. Hamas reported on Monday night that Egypt had brokered a truce but there was no confirmation from the Israeli side.

The BBC reports that US President Donald Trump has officially recognised Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967, in a move hailed as “historic” by Israel’s prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu was by Trump’s side as he signed the proclamation. Syria said Trump’s decision was “a blatant attack on its sovereignty”. Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, in a move that is not recognised internationally. A spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday he was “clear that the status of Golan has not changed”. Netanyahu told reporters gathered in Washington on Monday that Israel “shall never give it up”. “Your proclamation comes at a time when Golan is more important than ever for our security,” he said, citing threats from Iranian forces in Syria. It is, he added, “a two-fold act of historic justice”. “Israel won the Golan Heights in a just war of self-defence and the Jewish people’s roots in the Golan go back thousands of years,” Netanyahu said.

The Financial Times have published an editorial, arguing that Donald Trump’s decision over the Golan Heights sets a dangerous precedent that risks repercussions far beyond the region. It immediately compromises the west’s position, for example, on Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The editorial concludes by saying: “Few in the Arab world expect the US to be an honest broker. But it has long been the dominant diplomatic player. Palestinians should at least have been able to expect a semblance of impartiality. Mr Trump’s erratic Middle East policy seems to consist only of chastising Iran, cosying up to Israel’s rightwing government, and luring petrodollars from the autocracies of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It does not add up to a sound strategy.”

The BBC and the Telegraph report that, according to officials, flash floods in southern Iran have killed at least 19 people and injured at least 100 more. The BBC reports that dramatic footage on social media showed torrents of muddy water surging through the city of Shiraz where most of the deaths occurred. People were seen clinging to lamp posts and the tops of cars. Hundreds of buildings were reported damaged. Iran’s judiciary said the government’s handling of the disaster was being investigated. The floods struck during the Persian New Year holiday when many government offices were closed.

In the Guardian, Alia Brahimi writes: “The caliphate is over, but ISIS will be back in another form”. Brahimi argues that amid the trauma and despair in the region, the Islamic State will create a fresh narrative and spread further afield. Brahimi continues by adding the collapsed caliphate could now force ISIS to reset, and “correct” course. The shift in the power balance enables it to reclaim the mantle of victimhood and, at the same time, reimagine its past as a utopian enterprise. This myth-making will inevitably boost its efforts to refocus on the main target of global jihad: the west. It is only helped along by far-right extremism of the sort behind the attack in New Zealand, which makes newly relevant a large part of mainstream jihadist discourse about Muslims under siege, even in the west.

The Independent reports that according to the New York Times, Jared Kushner’s businessman brother met with Saudi officials at an investor conference in the days before the president’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser held private talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Josh Kushner, who runs a venture capital firm, spent three days at the October 2017 conference in Riyadh where the crown prince promised to invest billions in high-tech projects. According to the New York Times, he held “exclusive conversations” with Saudi officials. The day after his younger brother flew out of the kingdom, Jared Kushner visited the crown prince’s desert retreat to talk policy, the newspaper reported. Jared Kushner severed ties with his brother’s firm, Thrive Capital, and divested his interests in its funds upon becoming a senior White House adviser in January 2017. However, some government ethics lawyers suggested him discussing US policy with the kingdom’s rulers at virtually the same time as his brother was promoting his business to the country’s top aides still created the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The Times reports that an Egyptian media watchdog has ordered a boycott of the BBC for its “politicised and misleading” coverage of political dissent. The State Information Service (SIS), which is responsible for foreign media in Egypt and is affiliated to the presidency, accused the broadcaster of fronting a campaign led by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose government was overthrown in a military coup led by President Sisi in 2013. The SIS pointed out that the broadcaster had included videos of two pro-Brotherhood TV presenters based in Turkey alongside footage of protests. The watchdog claimed that the authenticity of the videos had not been verified, and labelled the report inaccurate and biased. It summoned the BBC’s Cairo bureau chief and demanded an apology from the network. Egypt’s top media regulator, the Supreme Media Council, also recommended taking legal action against the BBC and a fine of £11,000.

In the Financial Times, Raffaello Pantucci writes that Russia and Iran cannot always count on China, and the response to US sanctions demonstrates that Beijing’s own interests come first. Beijing is seen by some as the financial backstop that countries can call on to bail them out when they fall foul of US displeasure and face sanctions. Yet a close examination of the cases of Russia and Iran instead shows that China is reactive to US sanctions policy, to the detriment of its supposed strategic allies. This reflects the attractiveness of the US market, the reach of extraterritorial sanctions and the independence of some Chinese institutions from Beijing’s geopolitical interests.

Reuters reports that according to its Chief Executive, Amin Nasser, on Tuesday, Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, was building an international gas business and converting more crude oil into chemicals in a bid to lessen its carbon footprint. Aramco is building “an energy bridge” between Saudi Arabia and China to meet the Asian energy consumer’s increasing need for oil and gas as well as for chemicals and liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to a copy of Nasser’s speech at an industry event in Beijing.

The Israeli media is dominated by events in Gaza. Kan Radio reports this morning that there has been quiet in southern Israel for the last few hours. Sixty missiles were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel until 03:00 this morning. The Iron Dome defence system intercepted some of them and the majority of the mortars fell in uninhabited areas. A missile hit a house in Sderot last night. No one was injured. There were no reports of Palestinian casualties last night in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way back to Israel from Washington after cutting short his visit to the US because of the security situation. Before leaving, he said that Israel had delivered a very powerful blow to Gaza and that Hamas should know that Israel will not hesitate to take whatever steps are necessary. He said that upon his arrival in Israel, he would immediately go to the Kirya in Tel Aviv to handle security affairs.

In Yediot Ahronoth, Alex Fishman argues that the Government’s instructions to the army were and have remained: “To restore Hamas to a weakened state. To deter it, but to keep it in power. To that end, the army has to erode Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s military might.”  Fishman adds that: “For three years, the IDF has been preparing for the fourth operation against Hamas since it came into power in 2006. Last year, under the leadership of Southern Command Maj. Gen. Hertzi Halevy, a unique combat doctrine was formulated meant to cope with the need that will arise to administer the Gaza Strip for a lengthy period of time following a military operation. That doctrine was translated into air and ground operational plans. When Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi assumed office, those preparations for destroying Hamas’s military might become the IDF’s primary focus.”

Discussing Netanyahu’s decision to return to Israel, Nahum Barnea writes in Yediot Ahronoth that: “There is something troubling about the fact that Yahya Sinwar gets to decide where the Israeli prime minister will spend the night. If he chooses to fire a missile, Sinwar gets to truncate the prime minister’s festive visit to Washington; if he agrees to a cease-fire, he can stop the prime minister as he is making his way to his plane. There’s the prime minister, on the one hand, and then there’s the person who is running the prime minister from his bunker in Gaza, on the other.” Barnea also describes Netanyahu’s position on Gaza: “He knows that he mustn’t allow himself to become mired in Gaza. If he believed otherwise he would have operated there after the previous two missiles were fired at the greater Tel Aviv area. It was precisely because he didn’t want to make any missteps that he sold that missile fire as an innocent mistake, as a maintenance malfunction. He can’t pull that trick a second time. But his point of departure hasn’t changed: every incursion into Gaza involves a cost in human life and in daily life — a price that is liable to cost him at the polling stations. Netanyahu is in no rush to pull the trigger. On the other hand, the responsibility for the missile that was fired out of Gaza resides completely with him. He can’t pin it on mistakes that were made in the past; he owns the past as well. He is imprisoned between Gantz and Bennett: if he fails to do something beyond what is publicly perceived as routine, he’ll be eviscerated by Gantz and Bennett. His image as the strong man, as Mr Security, which he has been cultivating for years, is liable to collapse.”

In Maariv, Ben Caspit writes about Netanyahu’s challenges: “These past few weeks Benjamin Netanyahu has had a flock of black swans land on his head, usually without any prior warning. It began with the party of three former IDF chiefs of staff, which jeopardised his political monopoly; then came the revival of the submarines affair; and most recently, it was his weakest underbelly of all — Gaza. All of that happened to him at the least convenient timing possible, at a time in which he has been bleeding publicly and politically, and has been unable to control the public agenda … now, of all times, two weeks and a bit before the elections, when he was supposed to be on top of the world with American recognition of the Golan Heights, the celebration at AIPAC and the kiss from Trump, Netanyahu has found himself mired in a deep crisis.”

Amir Tibon in Haaretz describes Benny Gantz’s speech at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington as a “hit”. Gantz: “Offered the AIPAC crowd a totally different product: No American accent and no polished English; instead, this was the ultimate ‘sabra’ (native Israeli) politician — someone with a funny accent; is trying hard to pronounce certain words; and who constantly speaks about his military service. This is how many old-fashioned American Jews who love Israel picture ‘an Israeli.’ For Gantz, his reception at AIPAC should be seen as a success. Still, it’s not clear if, overall, it was wise for him to attend the conference rather than staying in Israel and campaigning on other issues. Yes, he managed to demonstrate to many of Netanyahu’s supporters in Washington that Israel can have a different prime minister — but his real test remains convincing Netanyahu’s supporters in Hadera and Ashdod.”

Also discussing the speech, the Jerusalem Post writes that Blue and White Party leader Gantz checked all the boxes in his first appearance in front of the AIPAC Policy Conference: His speech combined hawkish messages regarding the conflict with Hamas and Iran, called for bipartisanship alliance between US and Israel, and he revealed self-deprecating humour about his Israeli accent. He received six standing ovations, most in the context of Israel’s security.

Israel Hayom, Maariv and Haaretz report Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights on their front pages. Aluf Benn in Haaretz writes that: “Netanyahu isn’t the first politician to receive a presidential blessing from America ahead of an election, but it’s tough to remember a similar instance in which an Israeli leader is not only praised and embraced, on a personal and national level, but also without being expected to provide anything in return. Expressions of American support in the past always entailed Israel’s providing something in exchange to the Arabs as part of the peace process, or with reining in military measures. This is how Netanyahu received generous military aide from former president Barack Obama, in exchange for refraining from an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and sufficing with the caricatures he displayed at the United Nations and in speeches against the nuclear deal. And that’s how Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ehud Olmert won a generous heap of photo opportunities and presidential praises. Trump has totally severed the tie, the famous linkage between American gifts to Israel and the Arabs.”