The Independent reports that talks involving the US, Egypt, Israel and Qatar on a Gaza truce ended without a breakthrough as calls grew for Israel to hold back on a planned assault on Rafah.

Sky News’ Dominic Waghorn asks “Does Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu have the nerve for a military operation in Rafah or is it a ruse to achieve other goals?” “Israel may have a plan for Rafah and could be testing the water; or it may be opting for tactics and psyops instead,” he writes.

Sky News also features a video interview with Israeli Embassy official Orly Goldschmidt saying ‘There will be a plan’ to evacuate Rafah’s civilian population.

The Guardian reports that Israel is in breach of international law as the occupying power if it fails to provide food and water to the people of Gaza, the UK foreign secretary, Lord Cameron, told peers on Tuesday in his clearest warning yet over Israel’s conduct. “The people who are in Rafah on many occasions have already moved three, four or five times,” Cameron told the House of Lords. “And it’s not possible to move again, they can’t go north because they’d be going back to homes that have been destroyed. They can’t go south, because that would involve going into Egypt, which none of us want to see and the Egyptians do not want to see. That is why it’s so important, the Israelis stop and think before going ahead with any operations and wrap up.”

The Independent reports that the US Senate overwhelmingly passed a legislative package to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, and allies in the Indo-Pacific. “The package includes $60.6bn in aid to Ukraine; $14.1bn in aid to Israel to assist with its war against Hamas after the 7 October attack; $2.44bn for US Central Command to address combat expenditures for conflict in the Red Sea; $9.15bn in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza; and $4.83bn to support regional partners in the Indo-Pacific to push back against the People’s Republic of China.” However, House of Representatives Speaker Johnson is seemingly refusing to proceed the bill by calling a vote in the chamber.

The BBC reports that the UK Labour Party has suspended a second parliamentary candidate over alleged comments made about Israel. Graham Jones was filmed allegedly using an expletive to refer to Israel and saying that Brits who serve in the IDF should be “locked up”. The Jewish Labour Movement said Mr Jones’ alleged comments were “appalling and unacceptable” and that it was “pleased” that Mr Jones had been “swiftly suspended”.

Sky News, The Times, and the Telegraph report the same story, including details on the first Labour action against a candidate this week. The party withdrew support for Azhar Ali, who had claimed that Israel had allowed October 7^th to happen to give it a pretext for its operation in the Gaza Strip. Ali also allegedly blamed “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters” for fuelling criticism of a pro-Palestinian Labour MP.

While The Times’ Danny Finkelstein writes on “Why the left has a problem with antisemitism”, in its leading article, The Times writes of the Ali issue that “it would be a mistake to diagnose the problem as one confined to the fringe of left-wing politics. The truth is more disturbing. Anti-Jewish racism is on the rise across Britain, with the ongoing crisis in the Middle East lending political camouflage to the expression of antisemitic impulses that should find no place in civilised political life.”

The Guardian and The Times include news that three people who displayed images of paragliders at a pro-Palestinian march in central London a week after Hamas terrorists went on a bloody rampage in Israel have been found guilty of a terror offence. The three protesters were charged under the Terrorism Act with carrying or displaying an article to arouse reasonable suspicion that they are supporters of a banned organisation, Hamas, which they denied.

The BBC features news that the UK Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry after footage of “death to Israel” chants at an Islamic centre was revealed by the broadcaster. In January, the BBC obtained video inside the Kanoon Towhid Islamic centre in west London, commemorating Iran’s top military commander Gen Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US air strike in 2020.

The Telegraph features London’s Soho Theatre banning a comedian who allegedly told an Israel audience member to “get the f— out of here”, before leading chants of “Palestine will be free” during a recent performance. The theatre said ““Jewish members of the audience were subjected to verbal abuse and the performer aggressively demanding they leave the theatre. Such appalling actions are unacceptable and have no place on our stages, now or ever. We will not be inviting Paul Currie back to perform at our venue.”

All the Israeli media report the IDF Spokesperson’s Office released a one-minute video it claims features Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, making his way through a tunnel along with his brother, wife and three of his small children in the Khan Yunis area on the 10^th October. IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, “this film of Sinwar is the result of the manhunt for him. The manhunt will not stop until we capture him, alive or dead. We are determined to capture him and we will capture him. In our searches, we reached the compound in which he had stayed along with other high-ranking figures as the war raged above them. They live in good conditions, with food and also with a lot of cash money.” Hagari said, “The intelligence we are exposing here will allow us to reach senior [Hamas officials] and hostages, and we are determined to continue to do that.” Hagari added “We have reached most of Hamas’s strategic underground compounds, and we will reach others as well.” In the released video – taken from video footage from a Hamas security camera that was installed in a tunnel –  Sinwar appeared to be healthy and in good shape. Senior officials said more footage of Sinwar, some recent, exists but has not yet been released.

Channel 12 reports that Palestinian social media was rife with stormy reactions to the video footage released of Sinwar, as well as to other documentation that has been released by the IDF from the tunnels that served Hamas’s leaders. “We were thrown to the dogs, look at what kind of conditions they live in,” wrote one person. Palestinians also responded angrily on social media to documentation that showed large sums of cash and safes that were discovered inside the tunnels. Not only have documents penned by Sinwar been found recently, but also some 20 million shekels ($5.4 million) in cash, which was for his and his staff’s personal use. To the best of Israeli officials’ knowledge, Sinwar has remained out of touch, and has not been in contact with the mediators discussing a hostage deal.

Haaretz and Israel Hayom report on the planned IDF draft bill being discussed between the Likud and the National Unity Party at the request of the security establishment. The proposed changes include raising mandatory army service for male and female combat soldiers to three years from the current two years and eight months (for men) and two years (for women). The IDF also wants to raise the retirement age for reserve duty to 45 for regular reservists, 50 for officers and 52 for those serving in special roles. The amount of time required by reservists to serve per year would also go up under the plans. Three Likud MKs have appealed to Netanyahu to pass the military draft bill as a temporary order for only one year. IDF Chief of Staff Halevi said that the army has an historic opportunity to expand its drafting sources. That, according to him, is due to this being “a different time, where what came before now will be re-examined.” Halevi said that there “is only one thing that is very clear, and that is that everyone must recruit to defending our home.” The IDF chief said this during a conversation with reporters, adding that “the army also aspires to recruit from all walks of Israeli society,” emphasising that the war in Gaza is an opportunity to implement this.

Maariv reports that some 100 representatives of families of hostages are leaving for the Hague, to file a war crimes complaint against the leaders of Hamas at the ICJ. At a tarmac press conference organised by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Ofri Bibas, whose brother Yarden is being held in Gaza as well as Yarden’s wife Shiri and their two small children, says they are at the mercy of “terrorists who killed, raped and tortured, and it is not ending.”

Yediot Ahronot reports that the French Foreign Ministry announced it has compiled a list of 28 “extremist” settlers who will be denied entry to France. According to a statement by the Ministry, “These measures come as violence perpetrated by settlers against the Palestinian population has increased in recent months.” France’s decision comes on the heels of decisions by the US, the UK, and Canada to impose sanctions against a smaller number of settlers. The paper reports that “A high-placed source in the Israeli justice system said the decision made by friendly European countries to impose sanctions against individual lawbreakers in the territories is part of an orchestrated campaign they have decided to mount, and which is only likely to spread to further political, legal and economic fields and to target individuals. The campaign is designed to force Israel to act to find a solution to Gaza and to begin serious negotiations with Palestinian officials in the territories, in response to opposition within the [Netanyahu] coalition [to engage in political talks with the Palestinians].” The high-placed source in the Israeli justice system said that European countries believe that Israel and its legal institutions have not done enough to deal with illegal actions taken by settlers against the “protected population” in the territories and that, as such, they need to act against the lawbreakers.

Israel Hayom reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials are deeply concerned about this international wave. A meeting was held on Monday evening at the Prime Minister’s Bureau to discuss which measures should be taken to stop the trend. But that action is being taken too slowly and belatedly, and the prevailing assessment in Israel is that more countries are likely to take action against Israeli residents by means of international orders. One person who attended the meeting said that Israel has a range of actions it can take, but declined to expand on the issue.  Sources inside the government described the sanctions as a “mega-event,” and said they were worried that the issue would snowball and would come to negatively impact a large number of Israelis.  The former American ambassador to Israel, David Friedman wrote: “Biden’s executive order of 2/1/24 is a disgrace… Biden is refusing to enforce sanctions on Iran but has given himself the power to sanction Israelis who love and support America just because they refuse to commit suicide! This is a remarkable betrayal of Israel—I would be shocked if it survived the first day of a Trump administration.”