The Metro reports that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that there is “nothing” in local Kenyan reports that an assassination attempt on him was avoided in the country earlier this week. The reports claimed that the route of his motorcade was altered in order to avoid a threat. Netanyahu will today return to Israel following a five-day visit to Africa, during which he visited Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia, where he yesterday addressed the country’s parliament. Netanyahu also said yesterday that while in Africa, he spoke by phone with the head of a Muslim African state with which Israel has no diplomatic relations.

The Times reports on efforts by Israel’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and others, to introduce legislation which would combat online incitement. Erdan has publicly accused Facebook of doing too little to thwart threats on its platform and consequently encouraging violence. However, the article notes that Facebook fulfilled 60 per cent of the Israeli government’s 294 requests for information on criminal suspects during the second half of 2015.

The Financial Times reports that Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, has said that Iran last year sought significant amounts of nuclear technology and parts for missiles which could be used for nuclear warheads, despite a deal with the international community a year ago in which Iran agreed to freeze its nuclear programme. The BfV report said that the equipment being sought by Iran was in “quantitatively high levels by international standards”.

In the Israeli media, the top story in Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Maariv is the recommendations of the Biton Committee, which was established by Education Minister Naftali Bennett in order to boost the study of Jewish heritage in African and Middle Eastern countries. The committee’s recommendations were announced yesterday, including a greater focus in school curricula on writers and poets from these communities, plus visits to relevant heritage sites. Maariv and Yediot Ahronot describe the recommendations as a “revolution”. Although most Jewish Israelis originate from African or Middle Eastern communities, many have often felt that their heritage is belittled and even ignored by those of European Jewish ancestry.

Meanwhile, Maariv and Yediot Ahronot both prominently report that Bennett, who is also the leader of the Jewish Home party, has suggested that Israel should “create leverage in order to release the bodies of our soldiers”, by carrying out “kidnappings from the other side”. The bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed in Operation Protective Edge in Gaza two years ago are thought to be held by Hamas, along with an Israeli citizen who wandered into Gaza in 2014. The possibility of a prisoner exchange has entered public debate during the past several weeks.

Both Israel Hayom and Israel Radio news report that fragments of the EgyptAir plane, which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea several weeks ago on route to Cairo from Paris, have washed up on Israel’s coast near the city of Netanya. Prime Minister Netanyahu reportedly ordered that the fragments be returned to Egypt.