In the Financial Times, Mehul Srivastava writes that retired Israeli general, Benny Gantz is appealing to voters tired of the country’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Srivastava argues that Gantz’s Blue and White party presents the first serious threat to the veteran premier in a decade.

The Guardian reports that an Israeli spacecraft on its maiden mission to the moon has sent its first selfie back to Earth. The image showing part of the Beresheet spacecraft with Earth in the background was beamed to mission control in Yehud, Israel – 23,360 miles (37,600km) away, the project’s lead partners said. The partners, NGO SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, launched the unmanned Beresheet – Hebrew for Genesis – from Cape Canaveral in Florida on 22 February.

In the Times, Roger Boyes writes that the West must stop an Arab race for nuclear weapons, arguing Pakistan’s alliance with Saudi Arabia could trigger an arms race throughout the Middle East.

The BBC reports that a new paper published by Human Rights Watch says that about 1,500 children are held in detention in Iraq and the country’s Kurdish-run areas for alleged links to Islamic State. In a report, it says the suspects are often arbitrarily arrested and tortured to force confessions. HRW urges the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities to amend anti-terror laws to end such detentions, saying they violate international law. Iraq and the Kurdish authorities have so far made no comment. The Kurdish government has previously rejected a HWR report which alleged that children were being tortured to confess to IS links. In January, an official said the local authorities’ policy was to “rehabilitate” such children; torture was prohibited; and children were afforded the same rights as other prisoners. The 53-page report says that at the end of 2018 the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities were holding about 1,500 children for alleged IS links. At least 185 foreign children have been convicted on terrorism charges and sentenced to jail terms; HRW quotes the Iraqi government as saying.

The Times reports that five hundred Islamic State fighters are among thousands of people who have fled the Syrian village where the jihadists are making their last stand. The exodus from Baghuz over the past two days is slowing the pace of the attack by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-led coalition that is leading the ground offensive on Isis. A pause and a humanitarian corridor established by the SDF on Monday allowed 3,500 people to flee the village including 500 Isis fighters, according to Mustafa Bali, the SDF spokesman. This was more than the previous estimates of how many people were still holding out. Five captured SDF fighters were freed. Figures suggest that 10,000 people have left the village in the past two weeks. It was confirmed yesterday that two of France’s best-known jihadists, Fabien and Jean-Michel Clain, were killed in strikes on Baghuz.

The Telegraph reports that the grandmothers of two orphaned children of French jihadists held in camps in Syria are suing the French state for failing to bring them back to France, their lawyer said Tuesday. The children, a girl aged five and a two-year-old boy, are in the care of a Kurdish militia at the Roj camp in Al Hasakah, north-eastern Syria, according to the lawyer, Samia Maktouf. “They are in real danger without more international military protection,” said Ms Maktouf, who has represented the families of people killed in terror attacks in France including the 2015 Bataclan atrocity. “These children, born under terror, should not undergo further suffering. France has a duty to protect them.” The boy’s mother was aged only 14 when she ran away from her home in France and went to the then Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) stronghold of Raqqa, in Syria, in 2014. Radicalised online, she died last year during the bombing of Raqqa by US-led coalition forces. The child’s father is described as a European convert to Islam, said to have died after being detained in Iraq.

In the Financial Times, Henry Foy, Chloe Cornish, Asser Khattab and Laura Pitel present a Big Read titled: ‘Idlib: Russia and Turkey dig in for a final Syria battle’. They write that encircled by the Assad regime, the fate of the last opposition stronghold — and its 2.5m population — lies with Moscow and Ankara.

The Guardian reports that the newspaper has been told there are growing signs of a potentially destabilising rift between the king of Saudi Arabia and his heir. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are understood to have disagreed over a number of important policy issues in recent weeks, including the war in Yemen. The unease is said to have been building since the murder in Turkey of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the CIA has reportedly concluded was ordered by Prince Mohammed. However, these tensions increased dramatically in late February when the king, 83, visited Egypt and was warned by his advisers he was at risk of a potential move against him, according to a detailed account from a source. His entourage was so alarmed at the possible threat to his authority that a new security team, comprised of more than 30 hand-picked loyalists from the interior ministry, was flown to Egypt to replace the existing team. The move was made as part of a rapid response, and reflected concern that some of the original security staff might have been loyal to the prince, the source said. The king’s advisers also dismissed Egyptian security personnel who were guarding him while he was in Egypt, the source added. The friction in the father-son relationship was underlined, the source said, when the prince was not among those sent to welcome the king home.

The BBC reports that Google has remained silent over reports it told a US congresswoman that a controversial app was not in breach of its terms and conditions. Saudi app Absher can be used by men to track women and prevent them from travelling. The office of Jackie Speier confirmed to the BBC that a verbal conversation took place with Google after she co-wrote a letter of complaint about the app. Google declined to comment. Absher is currently available on both Apple and Google’s app stores. The app, which also offers access to government services, has been criticised by human rights groups. In addition to enabling users to carry out tasks like renewing their driving licence, it also asks men to list dependent women. It can then be used to either deny or allow individual travel. Women in Saudi Arabia need the permission of a male guardian, usually their husband or father, to leave the country.

The Times reports that the head of La Scala said Italian opera would improve the “moral values” of Saudi Arabia as he defended plans to build a performing arts school in the kingdom. Alexander Pereira, chief executive of the opera house in Milan, has been criticised for negotiating a €15 million sponsorship of the venue with the Saudi culture minister, potentially bringing a Saudi presence to the board. Pereira has also visited Riyadh to plan a La Scala school that would teach ballet, opera singing, violin and piano. This provoked protest in Italy after claims that the Saudi government ordered the murder last year of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Maurizio Gasparri, an MP from the Forza Italia party, urged La Scala to keep Saudis off the board because the kingdom “gives no guarantees about the respect of fundamental rights”. Federico Mollicone, of the hard-right Brothers of Italy party, said La Scala had to defend itself from “foreign attackers”. Pereira told La Republica that he knew “very well what kind of despotic regime exists in Saudi Arabia”, but that he was “convinced of the positive force of music”. “Bringing La Scala to be involved in that part of the new Saudi image that believes in the civil and moral values [of] culture is important,” he said.

The Guardian reports that as British MPs and officials step up efforts to be involved in the peace talks in Yemen, leaders of the United Arab Emirates-backed southern transitional council (STC) are due to tell them, that peace in the country is impossible without an acknowledgement of southern Yemen’s calls for independence from the north. The south of Yemen, briefly a communist state, was united with the north in 1990 and southern separatists were then beaten militarily when they tried to secede in 1994. Continued southern resentment at the north’s control of the country’s resources, including by the rebel Houthis, is a large undercurrent in the civil war. The head of the 24-member STC, Maj Gen Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, told the Guardian that his movement represented the bulk of the people in the south, and had far greater control of the south’s eight governorates, including the port city of Aden, than the UN-recognised Yemen government. “To ignore the will of the people is a recipe for only more instability,” al-Zoubaidi said. “The UN-recognised government has no influence in the south, its role is non-existent and, but for the support of the Saudi coalition, it would have entirely collapsed, plunging the country into complete chaos.” Fears of worsening Yemen violence rise as UN peace talks pushed back. He said the STC wants to hold an independently monitored referendum to secede from the north and restore the status quo before unification.

The chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Yemen, MP Keith Vaz has had a letter published in the Guardian, titled: ‘The key to resolving the crisis in Yemen’. Vaz calls on UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt to use all tools available to push the conflicting parties into a resolution. A nationwide ceasefire must be agreed immediately, says Vaz, adding that the aid so desperately needed must be allowed into the country. Only then do we have a chance of resolving this conflict. Mr Hunt must keep Yemen at the top of the Foreign Office’s agenda.

The Independent reports that according to a new report, British and American bombs have killed and maimed nearly 1000 civilians, including over 120 children in Yemen, since the start of war. The findings have sparked fresh calls for both countries to halt arms sales and military assistance to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who used the weapons in a ruinous four-year conflict there. The 128-page investigation, spearheaded by the US-based University Network for Human Rights (UNHR) and Yemeni monitoring group Mwatana, investigated 27 apparently unlawful airstrikes launched in Yemen by the Gulf alliance between April 2015 through April 2018. They found that in every one of the sorties, US or UK made weapons were probably used, killing at least 203 people and injuring nearly 750. Over 120 children, meanwhile and at least 56 women were among the dead and wounded.

Maariv reports on attempts to reach an arrangement with Hamas in the shadow of air strikes and balloon launches while Haaretz leads with the Egyptian attempt to prevent a clash on the Gaza border.  An Egyptian delegation visited the Gaza Strip yesterday in an attempt to help deescalate tensions between Israel and Hamas. The delegation, which is now in the process of shuttling back and forth between Israel and Gaza, reportedly hopes to mediate a solution that will restore calm. Amos Harel writes that ‘Hamas and Israel both seem to be attaching great importance to Tuesday’s visit by Egyptian intelligence officers’ adding that ‘Hamas apparently prefers the route of indirect negotiations and will try to wring every possible concession from Israel and Egypt before escalating into a military conflict. Each side accuses the other of failing to honour the understandings they reached via Egyptian mediation in November.’

Kan Radio reports that the IAF hit several targets at a Hamas military installation in the northern Gaza Strip last night in retaliation for explosive balloons that were flown into Israel. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said that Israel held Hamas responsible for everything that happens in Gaza.  Hamas previously told the Egyptian delegation visiting Gaza that it had no interest in intensifying the tension, but that Israel had to abide by the understandings that had been reached months ago.

Maariv also reports that following its headline yesterday, that suggested the Ultra-Orthodox parties were interested in joining a Gantz led coalition after the elections, Deputy Health Minister Litzman clarified that UTJ will not join a Government with Yair Lapid.

Army Radio this morning interviews former Labour and Kadima MK and Minister Haim Ramon who says he won’t be voting for Blue and White and doesn’t believe they offer an alternative. He said: “They are against Bibi but their policies are the same as Bibi’s.”

Yediot Ahronoth has a special feature on women Knesset members for international women’s day. It gathers prominent candidates from across the political spectrum. Thirty-five Knesset women served in the outgoing Knesset, making it the most female Knesset ever. Miki Haimovitz, number 7 in the Blue and White Party, comments on the absence of women from the top five of the list: “There was a situation of three parties that joined together, headed by men, and another former chief of staff joined us. We will have to prove ourselves in deeds. The platform of the party emphasises the promotion of women in a variety of aspects: in employment, in the struggle against violence and in representation. I also believe that the division of roles in the future will be an attempt to correct the missing representation. ”

An editorial in Haaretz says that: ‘This morning Israel Police Jerusalem District commander Doron Yedid is expected to meet with Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, the director of the Waqf, the Muslim religious trust that manages the Temple Mount, in an effort to avert an escalation regarding the Bab al-Rahma, a building on mount that is the subject of controversy. The building was closed by a police order 16 years ago after evidence that it was being used by an association with links to Hamas.’ It argues that ‘a courageous Israeli leadership would have acknowledged that the Temple Mount problem is not unrelated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A courageous leadership would admit that, despite all the slogans and declarations about sovereignty and the unity of Jerusalem, Israel is not free to act as it pleases on the mount. Past experience shows that unilateral actions put at risk not only the security of Israeli citizens but also relations with the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and the rest of the Arab world.’

Maariv and Haaretz report that police are likely to recommend charging MK Michael Bitan with bribery. At the centre of the investigation are alleged reciprocal connections that Bitan forged in the past with business figures who are linked to covering debt that Bitan amassed while he served as deputy mayor of Rishon Letzion. Bitan is suspected of collecting hundreds of thousands of shekels in bribes from businesspeople through his close associate Moshe Yosef, who has becomea  state witness.

Israel Hayom and Yediot Ahronoth quote excerpts from a recording from Gaby Ashkenazi’s interrogation by the police over the Harpaz affair in 2010. The excerpts seem designed to paint Ashkenazi in a negative light in all that pertains to his relationship with his political superiors and with journalists, while focusing at relative length on Ashkenazi’s personal relationship with Yediot Ahronoth publisher Noni Mozes.

Yediot Ahronoth reports that leader of the National Union party (part of the United Right) has promised to protect Netanyahu by helping to pass legislation to ensure his immunity.

Mako reports on a poll published yesterday evening by Hahadashot that found the Blue and White Party firmly in the lead with 36 seats, with the Likud trailing behind with 30 seats. The poll, found that the center-left bloc holds a slim 61-59 majority over the right wing-Haredi bloc. Several right-wing parties running in the elections – Yisrael Beiteinu, Gesher, Zehut and Yahad – are all expected to fail to cross the electoral threshold. However the centre-left also has difficulty getting a 61 seat coalition.

Israel Hayom also reports that Beresheet has transmitted its first photograph from space.