The BBC, The Guardian, The Times, ITV News, The Independent and The Financial Times all report that the IDF has taken control of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, following a major overnight raid on the medical complex.

Sky News, Reuters, The Sun and The Guardian report on PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech on Sunday, where he gave an operational update and spoke about Rafah.

The Guardian speaks to Israelis whose home is close to the border with Lebanon, about their fears, being displaced, and what life is like living so close to Hezbollah. The BBC reports on whether war with Hezbollah is on the horizon.

Reuters reports that Israel will send a high-level delegation, headed by its Mossad chief, to Qatar on Monday for mediated talks with Hamas designed to secure a six-week Gaza truce under which the Palestinian militants would free 40 hostages, an Israeli official said.

The Financial Times reports on PM Benjamin Netanyahu hitting out at western politicians for calling for Israeli elections, saying “have you so quickly lost your moral conscience?”

The Times reports on the straining relationship between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Telegraph reports that US military aid to Israel has slowed amid a row over a planned operation in Rafah, a senior Israeli official has said.

The Telegraph also releases a piece on ultra-Orthodox communities and why they are against being conscripted to serve in the IDF.

Charles Moore writes in The Telegraph about attacks on UK and US arms sales to Israel.

The BBC speaks to hostage families on their current fears and how they feel about potential ceasefire negotiations. 

The I reports on the Association of Rape Crisis Centres in Israel’s recent publication on rape and sexual assault attacks on 07/10.

Much of the Israeli media coverage focusses on the deterioration of relations between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Israel Hayom claims that senior Israeli officials are increasingly concerned that the US will slow down its supply of arms shipments, which are crucial to Israel’s security. “The dispute between the sides revolves around several issues,” it says, “but according to sources familiar with the matter, the main reason for the escalating rhetoric is a complete lack of trust between the Biden administration and Netanyahu’s government. The sides disagree, among other things, on the issue of humanitarian aid to the strip. The Democratic administration has long demanded expanding humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, but this has been met with Israeli pushback. There are also those in the administration who believe the Israeli government has not lived up to its promises on the matter.”

Yediot Ahronot quotes Netanyahu opening yesterday’s cabinet meeting by saying: “To our friends in the international community I say, ‘Have you really forgotten October 7, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, so quickly?’ So quickly are you prepared to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the Hamas monster? So quickly have you lost your moral compass? Instead of pressuring Israel, which is fighting the most justified war possible against the cruellest enemy possible— [you should] direct your pressure at Hamas and its patron: Iran.”

Of this, Yediot Ahronot’s Amos Gilad says “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s unprecedented verbal attack on President Biden is an extreme expression of ingratitude and strategic failure of the highest order. The United States is Israel’s only true friend, and Joe Biden is the friendliest president to Israel in history. There is no strategic logic to attacking him and the Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, and one can only suspect that at play here are petty domestic politics that have replaced a strategy that is vital for Israel’s security and future.”

Israel Hayom’s Meir Ben Shabbat assesses that “the root of the dispute between Washington and Jerusalem concerns the meaning of the war, which brought Israel back to the realisation that it is still fighting for its existence. The Biden administration has not internalised that for Israel, the defeat of Hamas is an existential issue. It is not like America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were conducted thousands of miles away.” The effect of this, he argues, is that “the administration’s approach plays into Hamas’ hands and has granted Hamas freebies: A delay in action in Rafah and increased humanitarian aid – conditions that help it reassert its control. The pressure from Washington moves Israel closer to a war of attrition, whose costs are high and its duration is difficult to control. They even push away America’s hopes of advancing a deal for the release of the captives.”

Israel Hayom’s Ariel Kahan is also sharply critical of Biden and says “after he and his people verbally attack Israel almost every day, how exactly will Biden be able to say the day after the war that he stood by Israel at its difficult hour? No matter how you look at it, his legacy has already been tarnished.”

Haaretz reports on another aspect of US-Israeli tensions – the speech last Tuesday of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who criticised Netanyahu’s leadership and called for Israeli elections. Netanyahu appeared on CNN yesterday and called Schumer’s intervention “totally inappropriate.” Changes of government, he said, are “something that Israel, the Israeli public does on its own and we’re not a banana republic.” Schumer elaborated on his speech, backed by the White House, over the weekend, telling the Washington Post, “I spent two months thinking about this and wrestling with it… Too many people are turning against Israel because of their dislike for Netanyahu. And I felt an imperative to show that you could be against Netanyahu and still be very pro-Israel, which of course I am… We’re not determining who Israel should pick. We’re just asking that they get a right to choose when so many people are just upset with the direction of the present government in Israel.”

On another important diplomatic relationship, Haaretz quotes remarks made by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during visits to both Jordan and Israel yesterday. Scholz warned against an Israeli operation in Rafah, saying it would make peace “very difficult”. “Right now, it is about ensuring we come to a long-lasting ceasefire,” he continued. “That would enable us to prevent such a ground offensive from taking place… Israel has every right to protect itself… At the same time, it cannot be that those in Gaza who fled to Rafah are directly threatened by whatever military actions and operations are undertaken there.” In his meeting with Netanyahu, Scholz said “we cannot stand by and watch Palestinians starve.”

Channel 13 features a demand by National Security Minister Ben Gvir that Jews be allowed to visit the Temple Mount during the last ten days of Ramadan. This would represent a departure from previous policies, and an unnamed senior government official says, “it is clear that Ben Gvir’s position ultimately won’t be accepted by the prime minister, but the mere fact of his demand to deviate from the status quo practiced in recent years will lead to additional and unnecessary unrest.”

Army Radio reports tension between Finance Minister Smotrich, on the one hand, and the IDF and Defence Minister Gallant on the other. Smotrich’s criticised IDF Chief of Staff Halevi’s plan to make a round of military promotions, to which Gallant responded in cabinet that Smotrich was “causing damage to Israel’s security and was undermining the defence establishment for reasons purely partisan reasons. Gallant said he would not allow anyone to turn the IDF into a militia in the service of any individual.”