The Guardian, Times, Independent, Financial Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Sun, Daily Star, Independent i, City AM and Metro all report that former-Prime Minister Tony Blair has stepped down as the Middle East envoy of the Quartet (United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia) after eight years in the role. Most reports contend that Blair achieved at best minimal success as envoy, ascribed to an apparent conflict with business interests and a perceived favouritism towards Israel. However, some suggest that he was frustrated with the limits to his role which focused on Palestinian economic development rather than political diplomacy.

The online editions of the Guardian, Telegraph and Financial Times all report that Israeli air strikes were launched yesterday morning targeting terror training sites in response to a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip which landed near the city of Ashdod on Tuesday evening. The Independent though says that the spat is effectively over for now and that Israel and Hamas have pulled back from the possibility of hostilities.

The Times, Independent i and the online editions of the Guardian and Independent all cover an Amnesty International report published this week, which accused Hamas of using last summer’s Operation Protective Edge as cover to eliminate political opponents. The report documents 23 executions and dozens of cases of torture, some of which it concludes amount to war crimes.

The Guardian online covers a rare interview in the Arabic media with the leader of the Syrian Islamist opposition group al-Nusra, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda, in which he pledges not to use Syria as a launching pad for attacks on the West. Meanwhile, the Independent i says that Hezbollah has for the first time used drones to strike al-Nusra as the two terror groups fight for control near the Syria-Lebanon border.

The Guardian says that France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has made clear that there will be no nuclear deal between the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) and Iran unless Tehran permits inspections of military sites. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei appeared to rule out such a prospect last week. However, the Times says that Khamenei yesterday praised his country’s nuclear negotiators for “breaking sweat … to obtain what is in the best interests of the country.”

In the Israeli media, both Yediot Ahronot and Israel Hayom lead with the impending FIFA Council vote on a Palestinian proposal to suspend Israel and effectively exclude it from the sport. Both reports say that the arrests yesterday of FIFA officials over illegal payments have only increased Israeli concerns that a vote against it could be carried, with Yediot Ahronot suggesting that Israeli diplomats suspect Qatar could be paying FIFA members to vote for the Palestinian motion. Commentator Ben-Dror Yemini highlights the potential absurdity in Yediot Ahronot, saying “Since South Africa, no country has been suspended from FIFA: not Iran, which brutally suppresses human rights; not Turkey, which puts reporters in jail; not Sudan, which carried out a genocide of black people in Darfur.”

The lead story in Maariv covers comments made yesterday by Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin, who told reporters that the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip is in Israel’s interests and indicated that he would not be opposed to talking to Hamas on the issue.

Meanwhile, another major item in Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Maariv is yesterday’s unseasonably hot weather, which saw brush fires break out across the country due to the extreme heat.