The Telegraph reports that scores of Libyan refugees and migrants taken from detention centres are being made to fight on the frontlines for the UN-backed Tripoli government against strongman General Khalifa Haftar’s army. The paper quotes several migrants and refugees who say that they have been forced to move ammunition and load weapons, while some have been taken to military bases on the frontlines to support militants. Several say they have also been told to fight. Alec, who asked to go by a pseudonym for his safety, said he was quickly given his own gun: “They gave us four weapons – AK47s. We even fought with them … Almighty God opened a way, so I escaped.” The five refugee centres in Libya are ostensibly overseen by the Department for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM), though in reality many are run by militias.

The Independent reports on the antisemitic cartoon published by the international edition of the New York Times which shows the Israeli Prime Minister as a dog wearing a Star of David collar leading a blind Donald Trump who is wearing a kippah. Within 48 hours the newspaper announced that an editors’ note would appear in tomorrow’s international edition admitting the drawing “was offensive, and it was an error in judgement to publish it”. Social media users accused the newspaper of being “casually hateful” and of a “glaring act of racism,” and many demanded an apology. The New York Times issued an apology last night saying it was ‘deeply sorry’, committed to making sure nothing like this happens again and believed: ‘Such imagery is always dangerous, and at a time when antisemitism is on the rise worldwide, its all the more unacceptable.”

The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Oliver Holmes writes a long piece on his quest for positive news in one of journalism’s most notoriously difficult beats. He says: “Covering this place is so contentious that there is a whole book on the Guardian’s history with Israel. Unlike anywhere I’ve ever reported, the focus here is not on what happens, but how that story is told, dragging us journalists into the fight over the narrative.”

The BBC, Guardian, The Times report on the shooting attack at a Chabad synagogue in Poway, north of San Diego, in which one woman died and three people were wounded. A 19-year-old man named as John Earnest was arrested shortly after the attack. San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore told reporters that investigators were reviewing the suspect’s social media activity and examining a virulently antisemitic “open letter” published online. The attack comes exactly six months after a shooting in Pittsburgh in which 11 people were killed, thought to be the worst antisemitic attack in recent US history. The Times reports that Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, died as she shielded Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein from the gunman who burst into a Californian synagogue and opened fire on worshippers.

The Independent’s Middle East correspondent Bel Trew reports on a new app, developed by Gaza-based mother Nour al-Khodary, which provides mothers with how-to guides for parenting, connects them to trained specialists, and provides support for victims of gender-based violence. It is the first of its kind in Arabic. The app, which is registered in Delaware, aims to break through blockades, barriers and borders and help women both within Gaza and across the Arabic-speaking world on how to look after and support their children. Al-Khodary told the newspaper: “People call you crazy, they blame the women for not being able to cope. It’s a taboo. You end up sunk in depression, which you take out on your kids. But with the app you can have discreet and confidential support.”

The Times reports that Hamas is experimenting with bitcoin donations to avoid international measures against terrorist funding. The Izz ad-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian group that controls Gaza, posted an online tutorial that sets out how donors could send money using the cryptocurrency, including using public computers to evade detection. The US has placed “primary sanctions” on bitcoin wallets found to have been used for terrorist financing and their owners, but Elliptic, a London-based cryptocurrency analysis firm, discovered that Hamas has started using a new wallet for each transaction, meaning that the US Treasury would be forced to place a new sanction order for each transaction. Although the amount that Hamas has so far received in cryptocurrency is only in the tens of thousands of dollars, researchers at Elliptic told Reuters that the group was testing the platform with a view to using it on a larger scale.

The Guardian has published a letter from Anat Koren, Odelia Haroush and Patty Hochmann, co-founders of Seret, the UK Israeli film and television festival, who write of their surprise that: “There has been a call for a boycott on screening films from Israel here in the UK, from film-makers who believe that they are supporting the ‘Palestinian cause’”. They add: “Our festival is running in London, Brighton, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Glasgow from 29 April to 12 May, with a wonderful programme of Israeli feature films, documentaries and TV series, and we look forward to welcoming film lovers from every community and faith.”

Yediot Ahronoth, Maariv and Haaretz report the shooting attack at a synagogue in San Diego. In Yediot Ahronoth Orly Azoulay argues that: “Antisemitism in the US has reared its head, and the number of antisemitic incidents in 2018 almost doubled compared to the year before. The neo-Nazi movement, which espouses white supremacism, the lunatic right wing—have all reared their heads. These movements view Trump as flesh of their flesh, and the moment that he came to power, they emerged from their holes: today white terrorism is a worse problem in the United States than Islamic terrorism. These movements do not consider Jews to be a part of the white race, but rather “foreign invaders” who are plotting to seize the place of the whites. Words have power, and they can also kill, and when an American president speaks in a racist manner about the different and the other, this gives the antisemites and the neo-Nazis a space to act. Trump did not ostracise them, and it ended in blood. And the bad news is that it will end in more blood. American synagogues are no longer safe places, nor are Jewish kindergartens.”

In Haaretz Chemi Shalev argues that: “The shooting assault dashed hopes – or perhaps illusions – that Pittsburgh would never be repeated. It marked all synagogues, regardless of their orthodoxy, as potential targets. It will force hitherto free and open houses of worship to beef up security measures, thus confirming their risky status.” He adds that “the bobbing and weaving, the posturing and the spinning, the indignant attacks and the disingenuous defences all broke along expected political lines. Which is as clear an indication as any that in the wake of the second shooting attack against a Jewish synagogue in US history, absolutely nothing will change. And that a third attack, with potentially far more devastating results, is virtually unavoidable.”

Maariv and Haaretz report that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s lawyers last night that the date for his hearing would not change because of problems over their fees. Mandelblit’s office sent Netanyahu’s lawyers a letter saying that if they wished to hold a hearing on his cases, they must schedule the date by 5 May, and that the hearing must take place before July 10. Recently Netanyahu’s lawyers said that they did not intend to pick up evidence in the case because a dispute over their fees had not been resolved. The letter also stated that if the Prime Minister chose not to hold a hearing, the Attorney General would make a final decision based on the evidence in his possession. Hahadashot reported last week that if Mandelblit did not postpone the hearing, the Prime Minister’s lawyers intended to either petition the High Court of Justice or waive the hearing. It reported that the assessment is that Netanyahu’s lawyers will ask Mandelblit, after resolving their fee and after picking up the material, to postpone the hearing for six months.

Maariv reports that after the Knesset passed the law deducting “terrorists’ salaries” from the money transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA), the government is now examining ways to help the Palestinians in their severe economic crisis. Israel passed the law in July 2018 but did not implement it right away because of the security establishment’s objections. About two months ago, the government decided to implement it and reduced the money that it transfers to the PA, so that last month it tried to transfer about NIS 600 million – the monthly sum of the Palestinian Authority’s tax money, minus the funds that it pays to the families of terrorists and security prisoners. Kan Television and Hahadashot reported that the PA refused to take the lesser sum, and after Israel tried to secretly transfer the money, it was returned, in full, to Israel.

Commentators assessed the release of two Syrians yesterday. Shimrit Meir in Yediot Ahronoth argues that: “In all that pertains to diplomatic decisions, this decision was certainly reasonable: Baumel’s body was returned for a small price, while also helping Israel to maintain its good relations with Putin.” However she adds that: “There are two substantive problems. The first is the failure to convene either the cabinet or, at the very least, the security cabinet. This wasn’t the first important decision that was made solely by Netanyahu and the National Security Council, while the other relevant parties were kept in the dark and were informed only after the fact. The second problem is that in retrospect we certainly can’t separate between the timing of the return of Baumel’s body and the date of the elections. As we all recall, Netanyahu and the IDF, which launched a huge media fest that was very embarrassing for Assad, vehemently denied the existence of any deal or any remuneration that might be paid in exchange for Baumel’s body.” In Maariv Yossi Melman says: “We have to call this by its rightful name: a three-way deal between Israel and Syria and Russia. And that is what Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the IDF tried to hide. On the day that it was reported that [MIA Zachary] Baumel’s body was found and that it would be brought for burial in Israel, while Netanyahu was meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, people commented that there were no free lunches with Putin, and that he would be sure to exact an appropriate price… The problem this time—as well as in previous security-related decisions—is that it was decided solely by Netanyahu. He did not raise the issue in a cabinet or security cabinet meeting as required and as the security cabinet itself decided in the past.”