The Financial Times reports this morning that Israel’s Air Force yesterday struck two strategic locations in the Gaza Strip in response to a Gaza rocket attack on the Sdot Negev region of southern Israel on Saturday night. The IDF said that the air strikes targeted a weapons storage facility and a Hamas training compound. There has been a marked increase in rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel over recent weeks, after a ceasefire that ended Operation Pillar of Defence in November had brought relative quiet to the region. Both the Guardian and the Telegraph report that Hamas-run schools inside the Gaza Strip have made military training part of the curriculum for up to 37,000 boys aged 15-17.

The Times says that the relationship between US President Obama and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being tested over what Israel regards as the Obama Administration’s slow response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. However, the article notes that Netanyahu has instructed his ministerial colleagues to remain quiet on the issue in order not to encourage speculation over a rift in US-Israel relations. Meanwhile, the Telegraph online reports that MPs are urging the government to publish further details of the possible use of sarin gas by Syrian President Assad before drawing any conclusions. The article also notes claims that Sir David Richards, Chief of the Defence Staff, has warned Prime Minister David Cameron that even limited intervention in Syria could lead to ‘all out war’.

The Financial Times reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with leaders of the Arab League in Washington this week in order to examine the possibility of reviving the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, which set out the possibility of a comprehensive peace with Israel across the Arab world.

In the Israeli media, a wide range of stories appear in the headlines. Haaretz says that Israel’s security cabinet held a special discussion yesterday over the use of chemical weapons in Syria, while Maariv covers claims by the Syrian opposition that Israel shelled a chemical weapons compound. There is significant commentary on the issue of the Syrian civil war by both Eli Bardenstein in Maariv and Nahum Barnea in Yediot Ahronot, who both wonder what the best outcome of the fighting would be for Israel.

Israel Hayom and Makor Rishon both give significant coverage to comments made by former Mossad chief Meir Dagan and former-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a Jerusalem Post conference in New York, where both men said that the threat of a nuclear Iran has been over-inflated.

There are also a number of stories covering the possibility of economic and social changes to regular Israeli life. Yediot Ahronot says that Education Minister Shai Piron is considering scrapping school on Fridays to introduce a five-day rather than six-day school week, while Israel Hayom claims that reforms in the car sales market are imminent. The same publication says that the government is considering introducing legislation to regulate strikes in the face of the threat of industrial action from Labour Federation Chief Ofer Eini.

Both Maariv and Makor Rishon report that Labour Party head Shelly Yachimovich has said that her party would have gained four additional Knesset seats had she addressed the peace process during her campaign in Israel’s recent election.