The BBC, Sky News, Reuters, The Telegraph and The Guardian all report that Syria’s military says five people have died after what it alleged were Israeli missiles hit the capital Damascus and surrounding areas on Sunday. Officials said a building was hit in the central Kafr Sousa neighbourhood, killing four civilians and one soldier. The densely populated district is home to a large, heavily guarded security complex.

The BBC reports that Israeli diplomat Sharon Bar-li was escorted from the African Union heads of state summit as she was not the person accredited to represent Israel, an AU spokesperson has said. She was walked out of the meeting in Ethiopia by a security guard. An Israeli spokesperson has blamed South Africa and Algeria for the removal. Israel’s status at the AU has been a source of contention.

The Telegraph reports that an activist selected by Labour as a candidate for the next general election called Israel an “apartheid” state and encouraged people to boycott its goods. Faiza Shaheen echoed language used by Kim Johnson, the Labour MP forced to apologise for remarks in Parliament earlier this month. Ms Shaheen has been chosen by Sir Keir Starmer’s party to take on Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, in Chingford and Woodford Green.

The Guardian also reports on our main story, on judicial reform protests, saying: “this centre-left rebellion against what is seen as a coup by far-right extremists has a demographic fault line: Palestinian-Israelis, who make up one-fifth of the population, have been conspicuously absent from the protests to date, even though the new government is fervently anti-Arab and the community is likely to be hit hardest by the judicial reforms.” The Independent also reports on the current protests. “Israel’s government on Monday was pressing ahead with a contentious plan to overhaul the country’s legal system, despite an unprecedented uproar that has included mass protests, warnings from military and business leaders and calls for restraint by the US. Thousands of demonstrators were expected to gather outside the Knesset for a second straight week to rally against the plan as lawmakers prepared to hold an initial vote.”

The Guardian also publishes a response to a recent letter calling for an Israeli-Palestinian Confederation. They publish: “Ursula Haeckel may be right that the extremism of the current Israeli government could lead to its own collapse and herald a more conciliatory alternative politics (Letters, 7 February). But while she confidently avows that the two-state solution is long dead, other interested parties are equally convinced there is no alternative to it. The greater danger is that there may be sufficient truth in both these hard-nosed articles of faith to point to a future of endless conflict. While asserting “Israel/Palestine has become a two-nation state”, her call for one person one vote – atomising everyone down to the level of the individual – would deny collective rights to both nations. The unitary state concept may be popular in some western circles, but a sustainable solution can only come from the inside-out, not the outside-in.”

Haaretz reports that international atomic monitors have detected results showing that Iran’s nuclear programme is now just under the weapons-grade threshold. The results showed uranium at 84% purity, just 6% short of the levels required for a nuclear weapon. Two senior diplomats are quoted saying that an investigation is needed to determine if the latest increase is intentional or the result of unintended centrifugal uranium accumulation. In an interview with Kan Radio, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan called on the Security Council to reimpose previously lifted sanctions on Iran.

Also on Iran, Ynet quotes Prime Minister Netanyahu blaming the Islamic Republic for an attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker. The captain of the Liberian-flagged Campo Square confirmed last week that the vessel was damaged by an aerial assault whilst sailing in the Arabian sea on February 10^th. The ship is associated with Zodiac Maritime, a firm controlled by Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer, chair of Ofer Global and the Zodiac Group.

There is wide coverage of the UAE’s decision to pull a planned UN Security Council resolution, drafted in consultation with the Palestinians, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.” The US, while publicly critical of Israel expansion, had opposed the resolution, and Abu Dhabi has now opted to forego the resolution in preference for a critical presidential statement (PRST), which will need to be agreed by consensus by the council’s 15 members.

Haaretz cites this compromise as “a significant achievement for the Biden administration, which has exerted heavy pressure on the Palestinian Authority and Israel in recent days with the aim of reaching an understanding that would lower the flames and set forth calm on a number of fronts, for fear of escalation ahead of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. The contacts included a promise by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to turn to the United Nations, and in return Israel would freeze the plans it had announced. Sources familiar with the details say that as part of the agreement, the Israeli military would not enter West Bank cities under Palestinian control except in cases of a so-called ticking time bomb ahead of a terror attack.”

On judicial reform, Israel Hayom’s Yoav Limor is critical of the government, saying “This sequence of events, more than it attests to a basic lack of understanding of what democracy is, of how a government operates and what politicians’ responsibilities are, raises more than a smidgen of wonder: who will protect democracy, the individual and the people in general, if the judicial revolution is passed? After all, the ministers appear to be mainly preoccupied with proving that their intentions are suspect: they have demanded to investigate and to jail their opponents, to limit demonstrations and news reports, to ban recordings—and other actions that could be summed up under a single title: anti-democratic.”

Yediot Ahronot’s Sidma Kadmon is similarly critical, writing “Nearly every major mistake in history was made for one reason: excessive self-confidence. Perhaps that is what is going to happen to Netanyahu, Levin and Rothman. When people look back on this in retrospect, they will find it hard to believe that the people who made the decision failed to take all of the information they had in hand into account. They will be stunned by the leaders’ inability to heed the warnings issued by nearly all the security officials, the economists and legal experts, who are now saying that this is a terrible mistake.”

I24 News highlights Syria’s claim that Israel was behind a weekend strike on a building in the Kafr Sousa neighbourhood of Damascus which killed 5 and injured at least 15. The anti-government Syrian Observatory for Human Rights echoed the claim and suggested that the targets were members of Iranian militias and Hezbollah. According to Channel 12 News two weapons storerooms were destroyed near the Damascus airport in the course of the attack. The attack was carried out amid Israeli warnings to Iran not to try to exploit aid deliveries to Syria in the aftermath of the earthquake to smuggle arms into the country. The extensive damage that was caused in Kafr Sousa, a suburb south of Damascus, is the result of a misfired anti-aircraft missile, and not as a result of the attack itself. Israel targets military targets in Syria and a strike on a residential unit would be an uncharacteristic change of direction.

Ynet discusses the imminent demolition of the Ramallah house of the terrorist responsible for November’s bombings in Jerusalem, announced by the IDF today. Eslam Froukh, affiliated with Islamic State, planted two bombs at bus stops in the city, injuring over 20 and killing Aryeah Shechopek, 16, and Tadasa Tashume Ben Ma’ada, 50. A third bomb failed to detonate.

Maariv covers an unusual incident from the Knesset this morning, in which Labour MK Gilad Kariv delivered a eulogy for retired politician and activist Yael Dayan. Labour colleague Naama Lazimi then tweeted a similar tribute before the Dayan family clarified that Yael – daughter of legendary General and politician Moshe – was alive. Kariv and Lazimi apologised for their mistake.