The Times, the Daily Mail and the Sun report on the last day of Prince William’s trip to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. In just over three hours in Jerusalem, the Duke of Cambridge covered three major religions and several thousand years of history, and still found time to pay his respects at the tomb of his great-grandmother.

The Times, the Telegraph and the Daily Mail via AP report that hundreds of Syrian civilians are fleeing to the Israeli border to escape the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime’s final assault against the rebels in the southwest of the country. The refugees spoke of living three families to a tent in the border towns of Bariqa and al-Rafid where regime forces and Russia cannot launch airstrikes for fear of retaliation by Israel. Yesterday the council in al-Rafid declared the town a disaster zone as a result of the sudden influx of people. Assad’s army is advancing into Daraa province, one of the last two rebel strongholds. The United Nations said that the fighting that broke out last week had forced 50,000 people, including 20,000 children, to flee. The Telegraph also reports that deadly air strikes pounded rebel-held towns across southern Syria on Wednesday, as relief groups sounded the alarm over a Russian-backed push for the region and its main city Daraa. As the humanitarian situation grows increasingly dire, aid organisations from the Red Cross to UNICEF called for more to be done to prevent civilian casualties.

BBC News Online reports that a Belgian artist has faced a backlash in Israel after posing nude in front of one of Judaism’s most sacred sites. Marisa Papen posted the image of herself reclining naked on a rooftop overlooking the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The Rabbi of the Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch, described the incident as “grave and lamentable”. Last year, Ms Papen was briefly detained after taking naked photos at an ancient Egyptian temple in Luxor.

LBC broadcast an interview between senior reporter Matthew Thompson and an Israeli special forces soldier who fought a gun battle with Hamas operatives on 14th May. Staff Sergeant L told Thompson: “We got a lead from intelligence that Hamas were using citizens as cover to breach into Israel. Commanders would not let us shoot at all, because there were many citizens and we didn’t know who were the actual terrorists. When Hamas started shooting at us, the citizens of Gaza got nervous and started running away. My team waited until the citizens cleared. The moment we saw a Hamas terrorist hold a gun – or anything that could harm our team – we shot at these terrorists.”

BBC News Online and the Daily Mail report that a court in Israel has convicted a 19-year-old American-Israeli man of making hundreds of threats to bomb or attack Jewish schools and community centres. Michael Ron David Kadar was also found guilty of extortion, money laundering and assaulting a police officer. He used the internet to make hoax telephone calls to the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The threats forced evacuations and prompted concern among Jewish leaders about a resurgence of anti-Semitism. Several airlines also received threatening calls, which led to planes carrying out emergency landings. In February 2017, several British Jewish schools were targeted and the Jewish Museum in London was evacuated after bomb threats attributed to him. He also made threats about British Airways flights between London and New York. Kadar’s parents argued that he had a brain tumour that caused autism and other mental problems, and that he should not be considered legally competent.

The Independent published a column by Robert Fisk, which argues that: “The ‘ultimate deal’ that Jared Kushner is proposing for Palestine would strip the people of all their dignity”. This comes in response to the interview given by Kushner last week in the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds.

The Guardian published a column by Ilana Hammerman, an Israeli writer and translator and David Harel, the vice-president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, which “calls on the world to intervene on behalf of Palestinians. They write that: “if peace is not established in this part of the world very soon, an area that has become a timebomb of national and religious tensions, there will be no future and no life for us or the Palestinians.”

The Daily Mail via AP reports that the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says a teenager has died after being wounded in Israeli shelling along the border. The Israeli military says it identified two militants crawling toward the security barrier early on Thursday, trying to infiltrate into the country. An Israeli tank fired a shell in their direction and later discovered firebombs at the scene. The health ministry says 17-year-old Abdel-Fattah Azzom later died in a Gaza hospital.

The Daily Mail via AP reports that Israel’s prime minister says demonstrations taking place in Iran prove that international economic pressure against the Islamic Republic is working. Benjamin Netanyahu told a military ceremony on Thursday that the U.S. decision to withdraw from the international nuclear deal with Iran and re-impose sanctions is causing “economic upheaval” and undermining public support for the government.

In the Israeli media both Yediot Ahronot and Israel Hayom prominently cover the first ever female graduates of the IDF tank commanders course.  The four female soldiers were part of a pilot training course aiming to integrate more woman into combat roles.  The four new tank commanders who made history are all profiled and include British born Charlotte Feld-Davidovici, 20, who moved to Tel Aviv from London two years ago.  Ten female soldiers successfully completed the training to become combat soldiers operating a tank, while four of them were sent to the tank commanders’ course.  Additional female soldiers joining the Armoured Corps are likely to be included in next November’s combat draft.

Maariv reports Prime Minister Netanyahu and the ultra-orthodox parties have been holding talks to bring forward Knesset elections, which are currently scheduled for October 2019. According to the report, the ultra-orthodox are aware that if they quit the coalition and topple the government over the conscription bill, which is currently under consideration, this will strengthen the secular Yesh Atid party. The preferred option discussed appears to consist of passing the bill and calling early elections immediately afterwards. The paper notes that Prime Minister Netanyahu does not want to hold Knesset elections before municipal elections due to be held in October 2018.

Haaretz refers to the “state of alert” as Israel closely monitors developments on the Syrian side of the Golan. Yediot Ahronot follows the preparations being made by Israel in light of a foreseeable offensive by Syrian troops against rebels in the Daraa and Quneitra areas. Israeli officials have said that they will not permit a single Syrian national to cross the border. However, Israel is reportedly preparing to transfer large quantities of food and medical supplies to assist refugees on the Syrian side of the border. A high-ranking military official is cited as saying that Israel is retaining all options for action in the event that it should perceive a threat to its interests.

Yediot Ahronot maintains its focus on the Gaza border, about 20 fires broke out yesterday in the Eshkol, Sdot Negev and Shaar Hanegev Regional Councils due to flying firebombs released from the Gaza Strip.  The result, once again, was that vegetation in uninhabited areas and natural forest went up in flames. “The situation is intolerable,” said a resident of Kibbutz Alumim, “heavy smoke covered the kibbutz and it was hard to breathe.”

Maariv covers Chief Rabbi David Lau’s demands that the government not make any changes to the Western Wall arrangement without consulting with the chief rabbis.

Yediot Ahronot reports some of the remarks by President Rivlin speaking at a ceremony in memory of 121 IDF soldiers killed in the Second Lebanon War 12 years ago.  The President reflected, “We paid with blood for this calm…This year, we witnessed a flare-up on the northern front as a result of provocations from Iran and its proxies. Iran is continuing its regional subversion in the Middle East and keeps arming organisations near our borders.

Kan radio news also included an interview with State Attorney Shai Nitzan who rejected Prime Minister Netanyahu’s criticism of the decision to indict his wife in the prime minister’s residences affair.  He said that the indictment was neither groundless nor delusional. Nitzan said that he did not understand how meals from fancy restaurants that cost hundreds of thousands of shekels could be called cafeteria food. As for the allegations of dragging out the investigations into the prime minister, he said that no stone could be left unturned in such investigations. Maariv notes Prime Minister Netanyahu is due to be questioned again in relation to Case 4,000, the Bezek-Walla affair, possibly as early as next week.