The Times reports that Israeli police are looking into the relationship between Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Australian billionaire James Packer. Yair Netanyahu is said to have received lavish gifts from Packer, who is believed to be seeking permanent residency in Israel, possibly for tax reasons.

The Guardian online covers Arabic media reports that Israeli jets carried out a strike near the Syrian capital of Damascus early yesterday morning. Israel has not confirmed this, but has previously admitted to carrying out targeted strikes to prevent “red lines” being crossed, such as the transfer of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.

An editorial in the Times says that there is a “real danger” that Hezbollah and Iraqi Shia militias, who are fighting alongside President Assad’s forces, “will embark on a round of blood-letting” as they battle rebel forces in eastern Aleppo. The Guardian reports that Assad’s forces are making gains in the city, aided by Hezbollah and others and that “hundreds of men have been rounded up and disappeared”.

The online editions of the Guardian, Telegraph, Times as well as the Independent all cover comments made by the United Nations’ humanitarian affairs chief, Stephen O’Brien, who warned that eastern Aleppo is becoming “one giant graveyard”.

The Guardian, Daily Mail, Metro, the i and the Evening Standard all report comments made by outgoing CIA Director John Brennan, who told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme that it would be “disastrous” should Donald Trump make good on his pledge to abandon the Iran nuclear deal. Brennan described it as the “height of folly”.

Writing on the Telegraph online, former US presidential advisor Dennis Ross says that if Trump is to show that he is serious about defeating ISIS, then he must “shun Iran” and keep Sunni allies onside. Ross was in London yesterday to attend the BICOM-Jewish News 2016 policy conference.

The Financial Times reports that Coca Cola has opened its first bottling plant in the Gaza Strip, which will provide 120 direct jobs and ten times that number indirectly. The article describes the move as “a rare foreign manufacturing investment” in the Gaza Strip.

The Times, Daily Mail and the Evening Standard all report that Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi has sold one third of his shares in Playtech, the online gaming software company which he founded. Sagi will apparently use the cash, worth around £330m to diversify his portfolio. He already owns significant prime London real estate including Camden Market.

In the Israeli media, Maariv and Israel Hayom both lead with the apparent Israeli airstrike on targets near Damascus early yesterday morning. Writing in Maariv, Yossi Melman suggests that if responsible, Israel must have had an “exceptional reason” to carry out the operation, given that “in the final analysis, Russia is allied to the Assad regime and any attack on it is an indirect attack on Moscow or on Russia’s goal of shoring up Assad’s regime”.

Maariv says that there is a “coalition crisis” over the refusal of Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu Party to back the regulation bill, which would retroactively legalise West Bank outposts, including Amona, which is set to be evacuated on court order later this month. Kulanu’s stance led to Jewish Home to threaten to break coalition discipline, leading to the postponement of a Knesset vote on another controversial bill over the amplified call to prayer at mosques.

The top story in Yediot Ahronot, which is also covered prominently in Maariv, is the plea bargain reached between state prosecutors and senior IDF figure, Brig. Gen. Ofek Buchris, who has agreed to admit his guilt over some sexual offences towards females under his command, with charges of rape being dropped against him. The newspapers and Israel Radio news all say that the female officer who accused him of rape, will oppose the plea bargain unless Buchris takes responsibility for his actions.

Yediot Ahronot, Maariv, Israel Hayom and Israel Radio all report that an unnamed former-senior official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has been placed under house arrest, as he is suspected of sexual assault.