The BBC, The Independent, and The Financial Times all report on the parallel visits of Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz to Saudi Arabia and the new Saudi non-resident ambassador to the Palestinian Authority Nayef bin Bandar al-Sudairi’s visit to the West Bank. Al-Sudairi stressed the Kingdom’s continued support for a two-state solution and professed its centrality to any normalisation with Israel. “The Arab peace initiative, which Saudi Arabia presented in 2002,” he said, “is a fundamental pillar of any upcoming agreement.” Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki called the visit a “historical milestone to enhance and develop bilateral relations between the two sister countries and open up further prospects for cooperation in all fields.”

The Independent also covers Israeli striking targets in the Gaza strip in response to border violence yesterday (for more see Israeli media summary below).

The Times includes an obituary of Shabtai Shavit, former head of the Mossad. It writes that Shavit “played a key role in bringing about Israel’s historic peace treaty with neighbouring Jordan in 1994, ending an enmity that had existed since the Jewish state’s creation in 1948. The day after President Clinton hosted the White House signing ceremony, King Hussein of Jordan called Shavit while flying back to Amman. ‘The King wished to thank me personally for my role in achieving peace,’ he recalled. Serving under three Israeli prime ministers, he guided Mossad and Israel through the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the first Gulf War, the rise of global terrorism and nuclear proliferation, and a period of intermittent rapprochement with the Palestinians.”

Kan Radio reports that the IDF used helicopters, UAVs, and tanks to attack a number of Hamas positions in Gaza yesterday in response to repeated gunfire at Israeli troops as riots on the border continued. An IDF sniper position was set on fire on the border, incendiary balloons were launched, and a fire broke out in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council.

Yediot Ahronot covers senior Israeli officials’ optimism that calm can be restored following positive indirect discussions with Hamas. A proposal was sent through UN Middle East Envoy Tor Wennesland, stating that if the violent protests on the fence and the use of incendiary balloons towards the Israeli border were to stop, the Erez crossing would be reopened to the 18,500 Gazan workers whose usual permission to enter Israel to work has been latterly suspended. Egyptian and Qatari mediators also conveyed the same message. Should calm be reestablished, Israel said it would “positively consider” Hamas’s request to increase the worker quota to 20,000. The security establishment is thought to favour such a move, on the logic that it is in Israel’s interest to improve the economic and civilian situation in Gaza, thus reducing the inclination of the Gazan public to engage in terrorism. Hamas is likely to be eager to reestablish the status quo, with each day that the workers are not allowed to cross into Israel costing the Gazan economy over ten million shekels. The total monthly benefit is roughly commensurate with the $30 million provided to Hamas by Qatar – a grant which itself is in doubt due to ongoing tensions between the Emirati state and Hamas.

The aftermath of the clashes between residents of Tel Aviv and activists from the Rosh Yehudi organisation which occurred in the city’s Dizengoff Square on the eve of Yom Kippur continue to roil Israeli politics, with mutual recriminations exchanged between government and opposition, as well as within the government and within the opposition. Yediot Ahronot reports that, with National Security Minister and Jewish Power leader Itamar Ben Gvir promising to hold another prayer service in the square tomorrow evening, his fellow far-right coalition colleagues in Religious Zionism criticised the move. Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman wrote: “There isn’t any doubt that the act of a small and violent minority that attacked worshipers on Yom Kippur tears everyone’s heart, but the response to that extreme progressive and noisy minority that doesn’t want a Jewish and democratic state here isn’t a counter-provocation, which will lead to spreading the flames and hatred and will unite a broad public around those same extremists.” Senior Jewish Power officials hit back at Rothman, saying: “Rothman is weak of character. He acts like a big shot… but in practice has capitulated time after time.” Prime Minister Netanyahu offered similar criticism of Ben Gvir, saying “prayers aren’t a provocation. But now, after the severe incident in Tel Aviv, the most important thing is to act to calm tempers. That is why all public leaders are expected to behave responsibly and to refrain from anything that might not contribute to calm.” So, too, did Shas leader Aryeh Deri, who urged the public to forego public prayer. “They should worship in synagogues,” he said. “We don’t need any gratuitous wars. We’ll only stoke the fire. We need to show responsibility and unity.”

Yediot Ahronot also quoted sources close to the prime minister saying of Ben Gvir more broadly that he “is a weight on the government, and it won’t withstand it. No government can survive over time with a provocateur like him.” Meanwhile, the Likud hit out at senior opposition figure Benny Gantz for failing to condemn violence from secular Israelis against religious Jews engaged in segregated public prayer, while Gantz’s National Unity Party colleague Gideon Saar criticised fellow opposition member Yair Lapid for “add[ing] another twig or a bit of fuel to the bonfire instead of trying to put it out. What kind of ‘leaders’ fuel a civil war on the evening after Yom Kippur? There are some things that mustn’t be in dispute—rulings by our courts must be respected. There is room for everyone in our public sphere. And yes, that also includes the Jewish heritage we all share. People who curse and humiliate religious Jews aren’t protecting the city of Tel Aviv’s character as a liberal and free city. To the contrary. They aren’t removing dividers, but are only making the walls between the parts of our people higher.”

The latest polling by both Kan News, Channel 12, and Channel 13 shows support for gender-segregated prayer services being allowed in the public sphere – 47 percent for and 34 percent against in Kan News and 48 percent for and 42 percent against in Channel 12. The polling shows that religiosity and secularism are reliable predictors of the response to the issue, as are voting patterns, with opposition voters opposing segregated public prayer by a large majority. Polls also show Netanyahu leading both Gantz and Lapid on who would make the better prime minister (except Kan, which shows Netanyahu and Gantz level), though they also continue to show his coalition receiving fewer Knesset seats than the opposition, with neither polling at enough seats to command a majority. The Channel 13 poll shows a majority of 55 percent supporting the process of normalisation with Saudi Arabia, with 17 percent opposing and 28 percent unsure. Significantly, similar levels of support for the process are seen amongst Likud voters on the one hand, and Yesh Atid and National Unity Party voters on the other.

Ynet features Iranian opposition news site Iran International’s claims that three Iran experts who formerly advised US Special Envoy on Iran Robert Malley were part of an Iranian influence operation. Malley was put on leave last June after his security clearance was revoked but no explanation for the decision was offered. Ynet quotes the report as saying that “of the three Iran experts, one of them worked for him at the State Department, one worked for him at the International Crisis Group (ICG) which Malley was a senior member of and was an unofficial adviser when Malley was in government, and one worked for him only at the ICG.”

Israel Hayom reports a “mystery explosion” rocking the Iranian city of Khorram Abad yesterday. The city is close to the Imam Ali IRGC base, which houses a large underground facility for missiles and drones and makes Shahab-3 missiles capable of hitting Israel. Though the cause remains unknown, Iranian officials told state TV that it was not an earthquake.