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Media Summary

French consulate employee smuggled weapons from Gaza

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The Guardian, BBC News Online, and the Daily Mail via AP report that a French national employed at the French consulate in Jerusalem will appear in court on Monday charged with smuggling weapons from the Gaza Strip. Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said the unnamed man, in his twenties, was arrested in February at the Erez border crossing. One of the suspect’s jobs at the consulate was as a driver, involving regular trips to Gaza, reports say.

The Guardian, BBC News Online, the Times, the Financial Times, and the Telegraph report that Turkish forces have ousted Kurdish militants from the Syrian city of Afrin. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the capture on Sunday, in what can be seen as a victory for Ankara in its battle to limit Kurdish influence on its borders. A video posted online by a Turkish-backed group shows its fighters parading in the streets of the city while another showed soldiers hanging a Turkish flag off a balcony. “The centre of Afrin is entirely under control by members of the Free Syrian Army, backed by Turkish armed forces,” Erdogan told a crowd at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli in the First World War.

BBC News Online, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the London Evening Standard and the Metro report that a British woman volunteer with the all-female Kurdish armed unit known as the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) has been killed in Syria. It is understood that Anna Campbell, aged 26 from Lewes in East Sussex, died on 15 March in Afrin, which has been under bombardment by Turkish forces. Dirk Campbell said his daughter was “very idealistic” and “determined”. Ms Campbell, who was a qualified plumber in the UK, travelled to Syria in May 2017 to help the Kurds, who were battling ISIS. Her father said: “She wanted to create a better world and she would do everything in her power to do that.”

The Telegraph reports that Israel’s military carried out an air raid overnight against an underground Hamas facility in the Gaza Strip and destroyed a separate tunnel under construction that could be used for attacks. No casualties were reported in either operation, which came after an explosive device was detonated near the Gaza border with Israel, the latest in a string of such incidents. Israel’s military said the operation to destroy the tunnel involved new technology it has been developing to detect them. “Our policy is to act resolutely against any attempt to harm us and systematically eliminate the terror tunnel infrastructure, and we will continue doing so,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

The Telegraph and the Guardian report that a Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli man, originally identified as a security guard, to death in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday before being shot dead by a police officer. The stabbing coincides with concerns over the potential for an upsurge in unrest in the coming weeks as the US prepares to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The Israeli man was taken to hospital in serious condition medics said. The hospital later announced he had died from his wounds. Israeli media reported that he was in his thirties, with some reports saying he was off-duty at the time. Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service identified the assailant as 28-year-old Abdul Rahmani Faddal, a father of two from Aqraba, near Nablus. The Daily Mail via AFP reports that Israeli forces are preparing to demolish the West Bank home of Faddal. “Following the stabbing attack yesterday in Jerusalem in which Adiel Coleman was killed, troops… surveyed the terrorist’s house in Aqraba before demolition,” the army said. “In addition, the terrorist’s family members were questioned.” Coleman was a father of four from the Kokhav Hashahar settlement in the West Bank.

Yediot AhronotHaaretz and Israel Hayom all lead with the stabbing attack last night that killed Adiel Coleman in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Israel Hayom and Maariv report that Natan Sharansky has been awarded the Israel prize.

Haaretz reports on the growing tension on the Gaza border.

Maariv reports that the security establishment is concerned about a wave of terror before the Passover holiday. Writing in the paper, Yossi Melman discusses the volatile situation and concludes that the situation is likely to get worse as Israel celebrates its 70th Independence Day alongside the ceremonies to commemorate the Palestinian event known as Nakba and the inauguration ceremony for the US’s new embassy in Jerusalem.

Writing in Yediot Ahronot, Alex Fishman echoes this analysis stating that: “At the current rate, by the middle of the year, the majority of the assault tunnels from the Gaza Strip that Israel knows about will be destroyed – and that is just about the only ray of light in the security situation with the Palestinians in recent weeks. The strategic warning issued by IDF Intelligence is becoming manifest: the decade of relative security quiet in the territories – is behind us. A large-scale violent clash between the Palestinian street and the Palestinian leadership and between the Palestinian street and Israel, is just awaiting the opportunity.”

Kan Radio reports that Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman began an official four-day state visit to Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia where he will meet heads of state and their defence ministers. It is the first official visit to the continent by an Israeli defence minister in decades.

Yediot Ahronot reports on the investigations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stating that former media advisor Nir Hefetz said he had told the Elovitches – who own Bezeq and Walla – to erase text messages they allegedly received from Sara Netanyahu and to destroy the phones.

Haaretz reports that an employee at the French Consulate in Jerusalem has admitted to smuggling weapons from Gaza to the West Bank. The case was reported extensively in the French media but a gag order preventing the reporting of it had been imposed in Israel.

Maariv reported that several hundred residents of southern Tel Aviv and activists demonstrated on Saturday night near the home of Supreme Court President Esther Hayut. They were protesting the High Court of Justice’s decision to issue a temporary injunction delaying the deportation of the illegal immigrants to a third country.