The Financial Times and Reuters report on Israel saying it has killed 170 people and detained hundreds more in an almost week-long clash with Hamas at Gaza City’s al Shifa hospital, one of the biggest battles of the war in the Palestinian enclave. The Guardian comments on this with perspective from the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The Sun and The Telegraph report on the current state of the proposed hostage deal. The Times reports on thousands of people joining hostage families in Tel Aviv to protest for the release of the hostages still in Gaza. Reports include clashes with the police.

The Daily Mail interviews hostage families who are spending Purim separated from their loved ones being held in Gaza.

The Daily Mail also reports from Kfar Aza on what remains of the Kibbutz, speaking to the few residents who have returned there.

Sky News reports that UNRWA boss Philippe Lazzarini said Israel had told the United Nations that its convoys would no longer be approved to enter northern Gaza. It comes after Israel accused 12 UNRWA staff of participating in October’s Hamas terror attack. Nine of the accused workers were sacked.

The Financial Times reports on the debate over whether to conscript ultra-orthodox Jews to serve in the IDF.

The BBC interviews settlers in the West Bank who want to push out Palestinians from Gaza to build Jewish settlements. Interviewing Daniella Weiss, who heads a far-right settler movement (Nachala), she does not deny accusations of ethnic cleansing. The Times also reports on the current state of settlements in the West Bank.

The BBC also publishes a briefing paper on Palestinian leadership and what could be next for who leads the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The Spectator publishes a piece arguing that David Cameron is wrong to threaten ending arms sales to Israel.

The Guardian reports on Defence Minister Gallant’s visit to the US today to meet with Lloyd Austin and Anthony Blinken.

Jake Wallis Simons writes for The Telegraph arguing that Britain has allowed Hamas narratives to spread too freely.

The Sun reports on anti-Israel protesters forcing the British Museum to evacuate and close some of its entrances on Sunday.

In addition to updates about the war in Gaza and hostage negotiations in Doha, the Israeli written media –Haaretz, Yediot Ahronot, Maariv and Israel Hayom – focuses on the draft version of the government’s military conscription bill which is scheduled to be tabled for a vote at the cabinet meeting tomorrow. This bill would raise the exemption age to 35, provide no enforcement against draft dodgers for three years, and not set recruitment targets for the ultra-Orthodox population. ‘The current bill is in fact used by the government to try to postpone the legislation by three months and thus buy more time. Together with the Knesset summer recess that is approaching, the legislation will be postponed until the beginning of next year,” writes Haaretz.

Discussing Kamala Harris’ comments – that the US has been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake – Nadav Eyal in Maariv writes that “nearly six months after the worst massacre in its history, a massacre that evoked exceptional international solidarity with it, Israel has locked itself in an extraordinary situation in which it is more internationally isolated than ever and is mired in a conflict with the United States on a range of tactical issues. Strategically, they agree that Hamas should not govern the Gaza Strip, the hostages need to return to their homes and Iran and its allies in the region need to be deterred. But those important agreements are headlines at best, and hollow slogans at worst.” He adds that “the bad blood stems first and foremost from the suffering civilians and the footage coming out of the Gaza Strip. The Americans are fed up explaining to the Israelis that flooding the Gaza Strip with food and other aid is first and foremost in Israel’s interest. Had Israel succeeded in doing that quickly—IDF officials say we’re close to achieving that, but we’ll have to wait and see—and had the threat of starvation been completely removed, the administration might be speaking differently now. Including about Rafah. The president and his aides have been forced to hound Netanyahu to get simple things, such as opening up a border crossing into the Gaza Strip to facilitate the supply of aid and flour deliveries, as a Ramadan good will gesture. Netanyahu has dodged them, made promises that he hasn’t kept, and has stalled. That isn’t the way to treat Israel’s most important ally, especially not in a time of war.”

Kan Radio reports that local clan leaders in Gaza whom Israel contacted about possibly replacing Hamas received threats to their lives. The Israeli security establishment is considering giving clan leaders guns to protect themselves. Security officials said that it would be impossible to create an administrative alternative to Hamas without armed groups in Gaza that were not Hamas. Defence Minister Gallant is expected to discuss this issue with his American counterpart, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin. The Americans may agree to issue weapons on their own to local leaders in the Gaza Strip after being vetted by Israel.

Army Radio reports that the increasingly prevalent view is that Minister Gideon Saar will quit the government soon because no mechanism has been found to include him in the war cabinet. Gantz vetoed Saar’s inclusion, and Prime Minister Netanyahu does not want to add Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who have demanded equal conditions to those given to Saar

Writing in Haaretz, Zvi Barel argues that “Israel, which coined the term “Hamas-ISIS” as a rhetorical creation designed to mobilise the world against Hamas, may have succeeded in proving that the group’s crimes and horrific actions are similar to the atrocities committed by ISIS, but the forming of an international coalition like the one created to counter ISIS is still very far away. This is mainly because, unlike ISIS, al-Qaeda or the Houthis, Hamas isn’t considered a global threat. This threat lies now in the very nature of Israel’s war against Hamas, as it may expand the battleground far beyond the group’s territorial stronghold in Gaza. Herein lies the enormous strategic importance of a hostage deal whose success – which will include a long and possibly permanent cease-fire – may return Gaza to its natural place as a focal point of a local conflict but not a broader regional or global one.”