The BBC, Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Independent and Financial Times report that Israeli lawmakers have voted to dissolve parliament after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a coalition government. The BBC reports that the vote triggered a fresh election, which will be held on 17 September. Netanyahu was unable to reach a deal for a fresh right-wing coalition following last month’s election. At the heart of the impasse was a military conscription bill governing exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students. It is the first time in Israel’s history that a prime minister-designate has failed to form a coalition. Parliament voted 74-45 in favour of dissolving itself after Netanyahu missed a midnight local time (21:00 GMT) deadline on Wednesday.

The BBC, Times and Independent report that Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife has reportedly agreed a plea deal with prosecutors over allegations she misused state funds. The BBC reports that Sara Netanyahu was charged with fraud and breach of trust last June. She was accused of spending $99,300 (£78,600) on outside catering while falsely declaring there were no cooks available at the PM’s residence. Israeli media say Ms Netanyahu has now agreed to reimburse the state $12,440 and pay another $2,770 as a fine. She will also reportedly admit to a lesser charge of exploiting the mistake of another person.

Reuters reports that Jordan’s King Abdullah told US President Donald Trump’s adviser Jared Kushner on Wednesday that a lasting Middle East peace can come only with the creation of a Palestinian state on land captured by Israel in a 1967 war and with East Jerusalem as its capital. Jordan is worried the plan could jettison the two-state solution that is backed by the United Nations and most countries around the world. Jordanian officials have also been worried the plan would challenge King Abdullah’s religious custodianship of Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem. Dozens of Jordanians holding placards denouncing Kushner’s visit staged a small protest on Tuesday night near the heavily fortified US embassy in the Jordanian capital. “The deal of the century will not pass. Down with the US” chanted protesters who included figures from Jordan’s mainstream Islamist movement, the country’s largest opposition group.

In the Times, Richard Spencer writes: “Time out: Israel has seen off Iran’s militias – for now, at least”. The talk of war in the Middle East concerns Tehran and Washington, writes Spencer, with the Israelis taking a back seat for once. In the region, talk is not of a war between Iran and Israel, but between Iran and the United States. Israel is keeping its head down, says Spencer, and breathing a sigh of relief. Israeli security officials and army officers believe that, for now at least, an unusual combination of political and military events has “seen Iran off.” A senior officer told the Times: “There’s no immediate existential threat to the state of Israel.” The article quotes Michael Herzog, who says: “There’s not a high likelihood of conflict in the near future.”

The Financial Times reports that according to Syrian doctors, the Syrian regime and allied Russian jets have bombed at least six hospitals in the past month that were on a list shared by the UN with the warring parties in the hope of minimising civilian casualties. Two Syrian medical officials in the rebel-held Idlib province told the Financial Times that the coordinates of the bombed hospitals were on a “deconfliction list” compiled by the UN’s humanitarian affairs office (OCHA), shared with the regime and its Russian backers. The list includes civilian infrastructure such as schools, markets and medical facilities. Munzer Khalil, director of Idlib’s health directorate, said that coordinates of at least six of the bombed hospitals had been shared, and he believed that the targeting of medical facilities was “systematic”. Although difficult to prove, any intentional targeting of health facilities is a war crime.

The Guardian leads with an editorial on the German responses to antisemitism. The rise of anti-Jewish actions in Germany is profoundly worrying it reads, but Angela Merkel’s fightback sets an example of moral seriousness and rigour.

The Independent reports that Britain’s new Middle East minister has unveiled a £1.6m aid package for Gaza to help provide life-saving medical treatment for nearly 400,000 people, warning the crisis in the besieged enclave was “unsustainable”. During his first trip overseas in the new role, Andrew Murrison visited Gaza to support the collapsing health service. The funds, which will be given to the World Health Organisation, will establish a new limb-reconstruction unit that the UK says will address urgent gaps in trauma and emergency care there.

Reuters reports that Arab leaders gather in Saudi Arabia today for emergency summits that Riyadh hopes will deliver a strong message to Iran that regional powers will defend their interests against any threat following attacks on Gulf oil assets this month. Saudi and the United Arab Emirates, which have lobbied Washington to contain their foe Iran, have said they want to avoid war after drone strikes on oil pumping stations in the kingdom and the sabotage of oil tankers off the UAE coast. Saudi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf told a gathering of his counterparts in Jeddah ahead of the summits that the attacks must be addressed with “strength and firmness”. “While summit leaders are likely to discuss how best to avoid a war, King Salman is equally determined to defend Saudi and Arab interests amid increasing tensions between the U.S. and Iran,” Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi intelligence chief and envoy, wrote in an opinion piece published by Al Arabiya.

The Times and Independent report that a former Iranian vice-president and mayor of Tehran has confessed to shooting his young second wife dead in a case that has shocked and baffled the country. The Times reports that Mohammad Najafi, 67, killed Mitra Ostad, 35, who was said to have been about to tell a television station about their marital problems. Polygamy is legal in the Islamic Republic but the relationship between a politician and a much younger woman raised eyebrows. After the murder one of the state television’s reporters was filmed interviewing Najafi, apparently in the police station where he was being held. There was no sign of him being under any restraint. He smiled as he was filmed entering the station and throughout the interview, in which he explained how he had killed her. “I wanted to scare her and not shoot her,” he said, explaining that he had followed her into the bathroom as they argued. “I told her, ‘Shall we finish this argument here and now?’ But she panicked and threw herself at me, causing my gun to go off.” At one stage in the interview he appeared to be laughing.

In the Guardian, Keith Kahn-Harris writes on: “How a radical new form of anti-racism can save Labour”. The row over antisemitism in the party has gone from bad to worse, he argues, adding, there is only one way out of the impasse.

The Israeli media all report the vote for an election in September. Haaretz blames Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to form a government, while Israel Hayom declares “Lieberman topples right wing government for the second time”. All the papers cover the Knesset vote last night that passed a bill to dissolve the 21^st Knesset, just a month after its members were sworn in. Seventy-four MKs voted in favour and 45 voted against. A new election will take place on September 17, less than six months after the previous election.

As part of last minute manoeuvring to build a coalition majority, Yediot Ahronoth reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu tried to entice Labour leader Avi Gabbay by offering him a range of  various ministries, including the Finance Ministry that he had already promised to Moshe Kahlon. He allegedly offered MK Shelly Yachimovich the Justice Ministry and veteran MK Amir Peretz was promised the presidency when Reuven Rivlin’s term is complete. The deal also included dropping legislation aimed at protecting the Prime Minister from prosecution. The Labour party rejected the offer. The paper also suggests that Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, who recently failed to be re-elected, will now part company. Ayelet Shaked is rumoured to be joining the Likud while Bennett is looking to reinvigorate the New Right party but only if it unites with the Unified Right.

In the commentary Israel Hayom, presents the Prime Minister’s perspective: “Netanyahu’s supreme goal throughout the crazy day yesterday was first and foremost, not to lose the mandate [to someone else]. While it’s true that Benny Gantz has no chance of forming a government and having another Likud candidate to agree to accept the mandate appeared to be an unreasonable scenario, Netanyahu was not willing to take chances. If he is going to take chances, it will be in elections. Netanyahu found it difficult, over the course of the last month, to shake off the message of the opposition that the entire purpose of the coalition agreements was to enable him to evade justice by means of immunity laws…. But the truth is, Netanyahu didn’t really try. It didn’t trouble him that this was what featured first in the news editions, day after day. He knew that in the coalition that he was planning, he would have immunity in any case—either by means of a new law, or by means of the current law, or by means of conducting his trial while serving as prime minister, without this causing the government to be dismantled.   The embarrassing situation that he became caught up in last night is unrelated to immunity and to laws. In this regard, the opposition lost big. It conducted a huge media campaign, including demonstrations and protests, but with zero impact. In practice, what caused the tension up to the last minute was Lieberman’s treachery, on the one hand, and Netanyahu’s inability to spot this in time and to defuse the danger.”

Nahum Barnea in Yediot Ahronoth writes: “For the third time, Netanyahu is taking the State of Israel to unscheduled elections. The first time it was because of a free newspaper; the second time it was because of his legal problems; and the third time it is because of the insubordination of the ‘natural partners.’ It turns out that these natural partners are not all that natural. Israel has known many political crises in its 71 years. It has also known some dirty and even dirtier political tricks, corrupt and even more corrupt political bribery offers. What we saw last night in the Knesset was a new page in the process of the decline of Israeli democracy. A newly born Knesset chose to commit suicide only because of personal whims. Netanyahu doesn’t want these elections: he knows that the public will find it hard to accept repeat elections now and will find it hard to accept his jarring failure to form a government. That said, on paper, he has a good chance of strengthening in the next elections: the right wing lost four to five seats in the last elections because of the high electoral threshold. Now he can get some of them back. The root of the problem is the decision that Netanyahu made on the eve of the 2015 elections, to marry the Haredi parties and the right-wing parties in a Catholic marriage (no option of divorce). Had he been able to manoeuver between the centre and the right wing, the crash could have been averted. And yet, there was something praiseworthy about Netanyahu’s behaviour in the last few days. The man fought. The man has no inhibitions. He has no shame. He offered all of the Israeli government’s most precious assets in a liquidation sale. ‘The owner has gone crazy’ is the sign that is often placed in a store that has lowered its prices to rock bottom. Indeed, he has gone crazy.” He concludes, “Israeli politics is sick. Netanyahu is the last person who can cure it.”

Maariv and Yediot Ahronoth report that the IDF is sealing off the last tunnel that Hezbollah dug, the longest and deepest of the six tunnels that were discovered in Operation Northern Shield. The other five tunnels have already been destroyed or sealed off. The tunnel is approximately 780 meters long and only the end crosses into Israeli territory.

Kan news report that “incendiary terrorism” from Gaza has continued as a palm tree and the roof of a gazebo in Netivot went up in flames in a fire that was ignited by an incendiary balloon yesterday. The fire-fighters put out the blaze.