The Financial Times says that Israel’s military prowess has come up against a “decidedly low-tech adversary, the party balloon, and found itself thwarted”. Over the past few weeks, the residents of the Gaza Strip have let loose a barrage of colourful kites with burning tails as well as festive balloons, sometimes condoms, with fuel-soaked strips of cloth. They land inside Israeli territory, often starting serious fires. The helium-filled balloons are difficult to shoot down and are too numerous for drones to chase, while the famous Iron Dome system, which has blunted the impact of rockets and mortars from the strip, is useless against them. Drones have been somewhat effective in forcing the kites down, but Gazans, who have been protesting at the border against the Israeli blockade for the past several weeks, have responded by increasing the number of kites they let loose.

BBC News Online and report that Israeli jets have struck Palestinian militant positions in the Gaza Strip after rockets and mortars were fired into Israel. Twenty-five targets linked to Hamas were hit overnight in response to a barrage of about 45 projectiles. Two Hamas security personnel are reported to have been lightly injured. The escalation came hours after Israel bombed three sites in retaliation for the launching of incendiary kites and balloons over the Gaza border. Israeli officials say the crude devices have sparked more than 450 fires in recent weeks, burning 2,800 hectares of land and causing $2m (£1.5m) of damage.

The Guardian, the Daily Mail, the Independent and the Telegraph report that according to several witnesses hundreds of detainees have been sexually abused at a prison in southern Yemen believed to be run by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Descriptions of abuse suggest sexual torture is rampant in UAE-controlled prisons in Yemen. Details of the US ally’s secret prisons and use of torture were exposed by an AP investigation in June last year. AP has since identified at least five prisons where security forces allegedly use sexual torture against prisoners.

The Independent published a column by Deputy Managing Editor Will Gore which argues that the US has a point leaving the UN Human Rights Council, even if US President Donald Trump’s reasoning for doing so is flawed.

The Sun has published an article explaining what the UN Human Rights Council is and why Trump decided to withdraw the US from it.

The Guardian reports that the whole nation of Algeria went offline on Wednesday for the start of high school exams, the first in a series of internet blackouts to stop the possibility of students cheating. Mobile and fixed internet connections were cut across the country for a total of two hours, to coincide with the start of two school tests. Devices with internet access, such as mobile phones and tablets, were banned from Algeria’s more than 2,000 exam centres and metal detectors were set up at the entrance to the centres, education minister Nouria Benghabrit said.

The Financial Times analyses the financial squeeze on Iran after Trump imposed sanctions. Shops and businesses remain well stocked. But fears that the Iranian economy will rapidly deteriorate as sanctions tighten and foreign companies such as Peugeot pull out has sent the cost of cars, houses and gold soaring, say analysts. Iranians worry that their country is sliding back into the economic difficulties it endured when western sanctions were at their harshest in the years before the 2015 nuclear accord. For many, the priority is to turn their Iranian rials into fixed assets before the currency plummets.

All the Israel media focus on the tension on the southern border and how to best combat both the missile threat and the flying firebombs emanating from Gaza. Maariv quotes IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot describing the situation as “explosive”.  Haaretz suggests Hamas is changing tactics and will respond to every Israeli attack. While Israel Hayom quotes Netanyahu saying the “force of our response will increase if necessary”. After five mortar shells landed inside communities in the Eshkol regional, Yediot Ahronot quotes a Kibbutz resident, who said: “We have to solve this issue, not by means of endless fighting and the use of more force, but by political means.”

Israel Hayom’s military analyst, Yoav Limor said: “While the IDF has been careful to avoid causing casualties in its strikes on Gaza, which is why it also recommended not to directly target the kite-flyers but it does not have absolute control over the outcome of its air strikes in Gaza. Neither can Hamas be certain that every rocket or mortar shell will fall in an uninhabited area and that Israeli civilians won’t be hurt.”  In Maariv Ben-Dror Yemini writes, “while the IDF might be ready, Israel isn’t. The battlefield is comprised of two theatres of operation—the military and the political. And we need to admit that Israel isn’t ready for the second theatre of operations. Hamas’s battalions of supporters are waiting in the wings. They’re already preparing their placards in London, Paris, Stockholm and Boston. Any achievements that Israel makes in the military theatre of operations will be snatched away from it in the political theatre of operations… Israel needs to offer to lift the blockade and to facilitate prosperity in Gaza in exchange for Gaza’s demilitarisation.”