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Media Summary

New Dead Sea scroll discovered

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A video report from BBC News explores the thousands of schools destroyed in Syria over the last 10 years and speaks to survivors of the bombing of a school in the Aleppo countryside. The Independent reports on the bleak future that Syria’s children face after the civil war. The paper notes that “nearly 2.5 million children in Syria, plus a further 750,000 Syrian child refugees in neighbouring countries, do not go to school”. The Associated Press speaks to activists from Daraa, the first city in Syria to peacefully protest President Bashar al Assad. The Syrian regime responded in force, crushing the protests and driving the country into a devastating war. The report notes that the activists “set aside their lives to join the marches in the streets, then paid the price in torture and exile. Unable to return home, they continue from abroad to support a cause that they hope can still prevail, despite Assad’s military victories.”

David Gardner writes in the Financial Times about how President Assad is the centre of instability and brutality in his war-torn country, but that a US deal may pave the way to end the decade-long conflict.

BBC News, The Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian report that fragments of a biblical scroll were found in caves in Israel. Officials call the discovery of the 2,000-year-old scroll “historic”. The pieces contain lines in Greek from the books of Zechariah and Nahum, with just the name of God appearing in Hebrew. Experts say the scroll was likely hidden in the cave during the Bar Kochba Revolt,  between 132 and 136 AD. Archaeologists also found a skeleton of a child and a 10,000-year-old basket, calling it the oldest in the world.

BBC News reports that Mohamed Hamad Mohamed al-Khalifa, a Bahraini prince, illegally imported 2,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine into Nepal. Al-Khalifa did not receive the required approval to import the vaccines from the Nepalese government. According to the Bahraini embassy, al-Khalifa intended to distribute the vaccines to villagers in the Gorkha district. After quarantining for seven days, al-Khalifa plans to climb Mount Everest.

The Telegraph looks at what has happened to the brides of former ISIS fighters. The paper notes: “Often young women or girls who had been indoctrinated online by savvy and well-funded recruiters, they fled their daily lives to go to Syria and marry jihadists … the IS caliphate fell in 2019, so where are they all now? Many have ended up as detainees in camps in Syria and Iraq. A few are said to have been repatriated, while some have escaped or been smuggled out of the camps.”

The Guardian reports that the United Nations has called for an independent inquiry into a deadly fire at a migrant detention facility in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital. Human Rights Watch said the fire was caused by Houthi missiles. Dozens of migrants were killed in the fire that left over 170 people injured. UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths called the fire “extraordinarily horrific”. The Associated Press reports that the United Nations has warned that Yemen is speeding “towards a massive famine” after Houthi rebels escalated their offensive.

The Times reports that the United Arab Emirates funded a £1 million study to test how drones can fire electricity into clouds to stimulate rain fall. British researchers involved in the project say that “eventually the 4kg aircraft could fly directly into stratiform or layer clouds, at altitudes of up to 4km, in the hope of creating raindrops through electricity”. The UAE is trying to diversify its economy with a focus on large spending on technology.

Reuters reports that a new International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report says Iran has started enriching uranium with a second type of advanced centrifuge, the IR-4, at its underground Natanz plant. According to an IAEA statement, “On 15 March 2021, the Agency verified that Iran began feeding the cascade of 174 IR-4 centrifuges already installed at FEP with natural UF6.”

In the Israeli media, Maariv follows the campaign trail as the battle between Yesh Atid and the Likud intensifies. Speaking in Tel Aviv, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid railed against the coalition government that Netanyahu intends to form after the election, saying: “With our money, with our children’s future, with the country’s international relations. The only government he can form is with Litzman, Deri, Smotrich and Ben Gvir. An extortionist government that will take working folks’ money to give it to people who don’t work.” Lapid also repeated his call on the public to vote for Yesh Atid, and not for the smaller parties, except for Meretz. “If someone wants to vote for Meretz, he should vote for Meretz. It’s important that they cross the electoral threshold. Beyond that, with all due respect to all of the calculations about the bloc, you can’t replace the government without a large governing party.” Netanyahu told Erel Segal yesterday evening that he was prepared to hold a debate with Lapid and that the United Arab List, headed by MK Mansour Abbas, would not be part of his government “from either within or without”.

A new poll by Channel 12 yesterday showed that neither the pro- nor anti-Netanyahu bloc has a clear path to forming a government. The Likud remains on top with 30 seats – the first time it has reached that number for several weeks – followed by Yesh Atid 18, New Hope 10, Yamina 10, Joint List 8, Shas 8, United Torah Judaism 7, Yisrael Beiteinu 7, Labour Party 6, Religious Zionists 4, Blue and White 4, Meretz 4, and the United Arab List 4. The poll also asked what the public anticipated Naftali Bennett would do after the election. A majority (60 per cent) said that they believed he would join a Netanyahu-led government, whereas only 16 per cent said they believed that Bennett would join the bloc opposed to Netanyahu, and 24 per cent said they didn’t know.

Israel Hayom publishes a commentary about the low morale in New Hope. “When Gideon Saar left the Likud and formed the New Hope Party, this isn’t the way he was expecting to reach the finish line. It’s not clear that his entire election list, which is mostly comprised of refugees from other parties, will stick with him in the event of an Election Day flop. But it is becoming clear that he cannot aim to be part of the right-hand side of the political spectrum while at the same time thinking it is possible to do this by ruling out joining Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition.”

All the papers note the Maan Party headed by Mohammed Darawshe has withdrawn from the race and called for its supporters to vote for the Joint List. In the future Maan will join the Joint List as a fourth component, but cannot have any representative of its own on the list for this election. The head of the Central Elections Committee, Justice Uzi Fogelman, has ruled out the Likud’s use of “Back to Life” as an election slogan because it refers to the government’s vaccination programme.

Kan Radio reports that Syria has accused Israel of air strikes yesterday evening. The Defence Ministry in Damascus said Israeli missiles were fired from the Golan Heights at targets near the Syrian capital. No injuries were reported, but there was property damage. The Syrians claimed their air defence system shot down most of the missiles. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack was aimed at ammunition warehouses held by militias loyal to Iran near al-Qiswa.

Kan Radio also reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu has told Likud activists that he would travel to the United Arab Emirates this week and that he expects to be permitted to do so. Writing in Yediot Ahronot, Ben-Dror Yemini cites the decision to cancel Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi’s visit to the Emirates as evidence that “Netanyahu believes that he and the state are one and the same, and that the interests that are foremost in his mind are his own personal interests, and only afterward the state’s interests”. Yemini adds: “Emirati officials were stunned by the decision to cancel Ashkenazi’s visit. It is clear from conversations that I’ve held with Emirati officials that they cannot understand exactly what happened. They aren’t planning any retaliatory measures. They aren’t about to freeze relations. But Netanyahu’s action is a negative sign. It may get them to look at Israel slightly less positively. If that is the way their head of state acts, maybe we need to take a more cautious attitude in dealing with that country.”

Walla reports that Israel has approved the transfer of 64,000 vaccines (40,000 Pfizer and 24,000 AstraZeneca) to the Palestinian Authority. The vaccines were donated by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the World Health Organization after the Ministry of Defence approved the move. The vaccines are expected to be distributed between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Kan Radio reports that a large percentage of a 10-million-dose shipment of coronavirus vaccines that Israel purchased will not be used once they arrive in Israel due to faulty timing in the supply process. When the vaccines arrive in Israel in the coming months there will be no Israelis to vaccinate, and if there are Israelis who need another dose of the vaccine in future, the doses will have expired by then.