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Media Summary

Turkey’s new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim discusses deal with Israel

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The Times includes an interview with Turkey’s new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, in which it is noted that over the weekend Turkey’s parliament officially formalised the country’s reconciliation deal with Israel. The agreement brings to an end six years of severed diplomatic relations between the two countries, following the Mavi Marmara incident in which ten Turkish citizens were killed attempting to prevent Israeli commandos from boarding a Gaza-bound protest ship. In the interview, Yildirim says that Turkey is also seeking to rebuild its relations with Egypt.

The Financial Times online says that the current bitter fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo is possibly the defining struggle of the Syrian Civil War. The article speculates that depending how the fighting unfolds, the United States could be forced to choose between supporting President Assad’s forces or jihadis sympathetic with al-Qaeda.

The Financial Times online also reports that the brother of Omran Daqneesh, the wounded young Syrian boy pictured in a powerful photograph last week, has died following the air attack on Aleppo in which Omran was injured.

In the Israeli media, the top story in Yediot Ahronot, Maariv and Israel Hayom is a Kassam rocket fired from Gaza, which struck the Israeli town of Sderot yesterday, prompting a sizeable response from Israeli forces against strategic targets in the Gaza Strip. Although the Gaza rocket did not cause any injuries, it landed between two houses and was the second time this summer that Sderot had been targeted. Israel Radio news reports that as well as an initial Israeli air strike, there were additional overnight strikes on Gaza targets, hitting positions controlled by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terror groups.

Maariv covers reports in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arabic media, that a senior Israeli delegation travelled yesterday to Egypt’s capital Cairo, in order to discuss Egyptian President al-Sisi’s initiative to resume a diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). It was reported last week that PA President Mahmoud Abbas had dropped his opposition to al-Sisi’s plan. Israel Radio news reports that al-Sisi was told by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin that he would be willing to host direct talks between Abbas and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel Radio news and the Walla website both cover protests yesterday by dozens of ultra-Orthodox men in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh against the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox seminary student who had failed to report for military enlistment. Stones were thrown at police, rubbish bins overturned and traffic redirected due to the disturbances.

Haaretz reports that Israel is considering the option of expanding the Jewish settlement in Hebron although it quotes the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories as saying that plans for civilian building have not yet been submitted or approved.

Meanwhile, both Maariv and Israel Hayom summarise Israel’s performance at the Olympics as the Rio de Janeiro games come to an end. Israel won two bronze medals in judo and several competitors reached the finals of their events. Israel Hayom calls it a “good effort”.