The Telegraph reports that Israel must “behave differently” in the south of Gaza to how it did in its full-frontal campaign in the north, Lord Cameron warned on Thursday. Both Britain and the US will continue to stress the need to protect civilian life to Israel, the Foreign Secretary told CNN on a visit to Washington. “Ultimately the long-term security of Israel does depend not only on their own armed strength and fortitude, but also on having Palestinians able to live in peace and security as well,” Lord Cameron said, in comments that reflect a toughening Western stance on the death-toll of Israel’s two-month-old war on Hamas.  

In The Telegraph, Charles Lipson writes that ” We in the West cannot lose sight of this reality: the IDF’s terrorist opponents are willing to place their own people in harm’s way. So why is it so difficult to believe they’re also willing to lie?”

The Independent, The Mirror and The Times all report that Israel is planning on forcing Hamas to abandon its vast tunnel network beneath Gaza by flooding them with seawater, US officials have said. The Israeli military has constructed five water pumps capable of sending hundreds of thousands of litres of water into the tunnels every hour. The pumps, which take water from the Mediterranean Sea, were said to be located about one mile north of the Al-Shati refugee camp, in northern Gaza.

The Telegraph reports that Gal Eisenkot, son of Israeli War Cabinet member Gadi Eisenkot, was killed fighting in the IDF in Gaza. Gadi Eisenkot was reportedly in the war room when he learned of his son’s death.

The Guardian, The Independent and the Financial Times all report that Israel has been accused of killing a journalist and injuring six others in a direct strike in southern Lebanon, in what Amnesty and Human Right Watch have said should be investigated as a possible war crime. On 13 October, Reuters photographer Issam Abdallah was killed while stationed roughly one kilometre from the northern Israeli border with Lebanon. He was filming the Israeli military and Hezbollah.

The BBC reports that Palestinians are mourning the death of well-known writer and literary scholar Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an air strike in Gaza City on Wednesday. He had taught literature at Gaza’s Islamic University, which was destroyed by Israeli air strikes on 11 October. Israel said the university was an “important Hamas operational, political and military centre in Gaza”. In an interview with the BBC in the hours after Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, which sparked the current war, Alareer caused huge offence by calling it “legitimate and moral” and “exactly like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising”.

Sky News and The Times both report that Footage has emerged appearing to show the Israeli military detaining dozens of Palestinian men in northern Gaza – with some stripped to their underwear.

The video, widely shared on social media, shows those held lined up in rows. Some appear to have their hands tied behind their backs. Israeli newspapers report that the images show Hamas fighters surrendering to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

The Guardian publishes on Anthony Blinken’s comments: “The US has issued some of its strongest criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas, as growing pressure to speed up the delivery of humanitarian supplies into Gaza has resulted in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu saying that another crossing would be opened into the territory. US secretary of state Antony Blinken said there was a ‘gap between the Israeli government’s declared intentions to protect civilians and the mounting casualties seen on the ground’.” The Financial Times also reports that Israel has warned the war could take another year. Minister of defence Yoav Gallant spoke of months — to which the US secretary of state Antony Blinken reportedly retorted: “I don’t think you have the credit for that.”

The Israeli media discusses the death of Gal Eisenkot, the son of former Chief of Staff and member of the War Cabinet Gadi Eisenkot. In Yediot Ahronot, Yossi Yehoshua writes “only in a country like Israel could a former chief of staff and senior minister in the war cabinet find himself on a visit to the field headquarters of the division his son is fighting in and receive word that his son had been killed.” He argues that “the fighting in Gaza can be boiled down to one sentence: so far, there have been thousands of tactical victories over Hamas, but there still has been no strategic victory. Given international pressure and the shape of Israel’s economy, with more and more reservists screaming for help and still not getting it from our leaders, one can only hope it will come soon.” Ultimately, “Israel has not yet reached the breaking point, the point where Hamas says ‘enough.’ This could have happened with the assassination of Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, or Marwan Issa, but it hasn’t happened yet. This task is mainly in the purview of the GSS; until the opportunity presents itself, the IDF must achieve a breaking point during the fighting in Khan Yunis. Only pressure like that can bring Hamas to make another deal to release more hostages.”

In Haaretz, Amos Harel writes that “Despite the administration’s growing interest in ending the war, Israeli political and defence officials haven’t gotten the impression that the Americans are close to slapping Israel with an ultimatum. US President Joe Biden apparently thinks the IDF should be allowed to complete its offensive in the Khan Yunis area and thereby exert increased pressure on Hamas, in the hope of taming its leaders’ desire to continue fighting.” Harel estimates that “It’s reasonable to assume that Washington will let Israel keep fighting for another month or maybe a little longer, if the battles don’t result in further mass Palestinian civilian casualties and if Gaza’s humanitarian crisis doesn’t spin out of control.”

Ben Caspit in Maariv argues that “It would be good if the fighting in Khan Yunis led to the real disintegration of Hamas and the elimination of its leadership class. That is a possibility, a hope, a gamble; it certainly poses a danger to the lives of the troops and the hostages.” He adds “Between the lines, the prime minister and the defense minister are fighting a battle over their image in the war. Each of them is [trying to] make sure the public knows that he, and only he, is managing the war.”

In Yediot Ahronot, Avi Issacharoff argues that “In spite of the great fear we felt during the first two weeks about launching an Israeli ground action, it can already be said that the ground action has proven itself. Hamas has ultimately been defeated everywhere it has run into IDF troops, be it in the northern or southern Gaza Strip. The pictures that came out of Gaza yesterday—dozens and perhaps hundreds of Palestinian men, bound and wearing nothing but their underwear after having surrendered to IDF soldiers—were nothing less than astonishing, and are very informative about what has been happening in combat. Hamas probably bet that Israel, fearing casualties and international pressure, would only launch a limited ground action. But the IDF has behaved so aggressively, proving itself thus far and causing Hamas to crumble militarily wherever it meets Israeli forces.”

In Israel Hayom, former right-wing politician Yoaz Hendel – currently performing reserve duty – writes that “I believe this is a war of no choice. We have to destroy Hamas and the threats facing the citizens living in the border communities and no less important – recalibrate Israeli society. Gone are the days where we as a society were relaxed and believed we could hate one another.” He continues “We are not fighting a War of Independence, despite the terrible numbers massacred [on October 7] and the soldiers who have fallen. We are in a War of Awakening. In this war too we have no choice.” He concludes that ‘we the reservists are those that will determine the future of the state – it is the reservists who will not allow anything to remain as it was.”

Yossi Verter in Haaretz is critical of Netanyahu’s dealings with the families of Israeli hostages. “In his recent statements, Netanyahu has allowed himself to gradually relate less and less to the hostages. His adamant message to his base, in contrast, is sent repeatedly: We will not allow the Palestinian Authority to come anywhere near Gaza on the day after. That’s how he answers questions, even when they’re totally unrelated to this issue.”

Several outlets report that head of the Israeli centre-left Labour Party, Merav Michaeli, announced on Thursday that she is leaving political life, and that the party will hold a leadership contest within the next four months. “I have no intention of running in the primaries for the party leadership, and I will not be running for a spot on the next Knesset list,” Michaeli stated, adding that “I will do everything I can to hand the reins to the next Labor leader in the best possible way, to rebuild the party and our country.”

Discussing the resignation, Eitan Orkibi in Israel Hayom claims that “It is a tragedy that Israel has no large Zionist centre-left party with leadership potential. This situation is bad for politics, and it is bad for ideological discourse. For a long time now, the Labor Party has failed to fill this gap. Some say this is the price of Oslo. Maybe. But the absence of an ideological alternative to the national camp led by the Likud—which in times of crisis could be a partner in an authentic unity government that represents agreement between the two ideological camps—is part of the overall deterioration of Israeli politics.”

Also in left-wing politics Haaretz publishes an in-depth interview with former IDF deputy chief of staff Yair Golan. “The person who was slammed from all sides in the wake of his 2016 speech, who was pushed out of Meretz, has been recreated as a national hero. Suddenly he’s part of the consensus. He no longer thinks in terms of leading Meretz. Golan argues that “The most correct thing in my view would be to establish a new [left-wing] framework, which would signal that we have embarked on a new road, with new rules, new channels of activity and new people.”

A poll published in Maariv finds that when asked which of Netanyahu or Gantz is more suitable to be prime minister, 31 per cent say Netanyahu and 51 per cent Gantz (18 per cent don’t know). According to the poll, Gantz’s National Unity Party is polling at 38 seats, and the current coalition (currently 64 seats) would gain 44 seats if elections were held today.