Israel related coverage in the UK media is dominated today by the Israeli air strikes on Gaza yesterday, carried out in response to Hamas attacks over the weekend. The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Reuters, BBC Online and Sky News Online all reported this latest development. In other items, the Guardian, Times, Daily Telegraph and Independent note a visit to Israel this week by US former Republican vice-presidential candidate and former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin. The Guardian, Financial Times, Evening Standard, Times, Scotsman and Reuters report on the continued unrest in Syria. The Guardian, Financial Times and Independent have analysis pieces looking at the unrest across the Arab world. The Guardian has additional articles on the purchase by Facebook of an Israeli start-up, a dispute in an elite French university over a ban on a debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a profile of former Egyptian foreign minister, Arab League head and likely Egyptian presidential candidate Amr Moussa. The paper also interviews the leader of the boycott campaign against Israel and has a piece by Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn. A letter in the Financial Times notes that the Palestinian cause has not featured as an issue in the Arab uprisings. 

In the Israeli media, all papers focus on the air raids against Hamas targets in Gaza yesterday. All papers also have pieces on the sentencing today of former President Moshe Katsav to seven years in jail, after he had previously been found guilty of rape and other sexual offences. Haaretz notes that the Turkish IHH group, which organised the Gaza flotilla, is planning another 15 ship flotilla to Gaza. All papers also note a claim by UN investigator Richard Falk that Israel’s expansion of settlements in east Jerusalem constitutes a form of ‘ethnic cleansing.’ All papers also have article on the visit to Israel of Sarah Palin.