The Independent and the Daily Express report that the US could soon recognise the disputed Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory. Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said that the subject was “topping the agenda” in talks with the Trump administration. He suggested that such a move would bolster US efforts to confront Iran, which have seen the US President withdraw his country from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). “The most painful response you can give the Iranians is to recognise Israel’s Golan sovereignty – with an American statement, a presidential proclamation,” Katz said.

The Times reports that Israeli aircraft have destroyed boats moored in Gaza City’s main port and targeted a tunnel after a group of Palestinians breached the border fence. The Israeli army said its airstrikes had hit “underground terror infrastructure” belonging to Hamas, the armed Islamist group that rules Gaza, as well as Hamas naval targets. Witnesses in Gaza said that two boats belonging to the Hamas-run marine police, which were being prepared to meet an aid flotilla this summer, were set ablaze by the strikes. The Israelis said the co-ordinated attack was in response to breaches which took place yesterday on the eastern edge of Gaza’s border. “A number of terrorists infiltrated into Israel and set a military post on fire,” the army said. It added that there had been attempts to target security forces in Israel with drones and to set fields there ablaze with flaming kites.

The Telegraph reports that Israeli military officers have “no regrets” over the use of lethal force at Gaza protests. The commander, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was in no doubt that live bullets had been necessary. “Was there an option where we could stop them cutting the fence and coming into Israel without a using a lethal weapon? The answer is no,” the commander said. “They have a hard and deep hatred of Israel and if they came into Israel I think there is no question of what they are going to do.” Officers also voiced frustration at what they considered knee-jerk criticism of their use of live fire by people who did not understand the situation on the ground. Some said the world had fallen for a Palestinian narrative that the protests had been entirely peaceful, when they believe their forces had, in fact, faced serious violence from the other side of the fence.

BBC News Online reports that Palestinians face uncertainties over Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ succession, especially considering his recent health concerns. A hospital official said the 83-year-old leader – who had surgery on his ear last week – now had inflammation in his lung but was “responding to the treatment quickly and recovering”. The message was clearly meant to quell swirling rumours of his imminent demise. Increasingly, there are open discussions among ordinary Palestinians as well as Israeli officials and foreign diplomats about who could be the next leader.

The Independent reports that the US says someone “took advantage” of its Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, after he was photographed holding a contraversial poster. Friedman was photographed during a visit to the city of Bnei Brek, near Tel Aviv, accepting the controversial large poster of an aerial image of the holy city that was missing the famous golden Dome of the Rock. A statement from the new US Embassy in Jerusalem said Friedman was “deeply disappointed” when alerted to the issue, but was not aware of the missing mosque when the image was “thrust in front of him when the picture was taken”.

The Spectator has published a review of Anshel Pfeffer’s book Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu. The review states that his book is “a forensic character study of Israel’s first native-born prime minister. Pfeffer sees a country that mirrors its leader: flabby, self-satisfied and shirking fundamental moral dilemmas”. The review concludes by finding the book a “biography at its most honest, most powerful — a work of sober analysis that does not neglect the importance of personality. It is written with the immediacy of the moment, yet this gives the book the quality of aliveness that makes living history so compelling and reminds us that events, though in hindsight they may appear to, do not come in sweeps but are the consequences of moral choices made by leaders.”

The Independent reports that Israel’s Embassy to the Netherlands has lodged a formal complaint over a parody version of the winning Israeli Eurovision entry, which it said “went too far” by invoking Jewish stereotypes.

The Times, the Guardian and BBC News Online report that Iran has responded to Washington’s list of demands to avoid crippling new sanctions by daring the United States to attack it militarily. Senior Iranian officials simultaneously played down the importance of a speech by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, in which he insisted that Iran change its Middle East policies, and issued retaliatory threats. In excerpts of a speech posted on his official website yesterday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, said that the United States had done everything it could to bring about regime change in Tehran, but it had been defeated. Khamenei set out several conditions for staying in the nuclear deal with world powers. The conditions include protecting Iranian oil sales from the US sanctions and continue buying Iranian crude, safeguarding trade and pledging not to seek negotiations on Iran’s ballistic missile programme and regional activities.

The London Evening Standard has published a column by columnist Matthew D’Ancona which highlights the anti-Israel and anti-American sentiments of former Mayor of London Ken Livingston, following his departure from the Labour Party this week. He writes that “the common thread has always been [for Livingstone] the conviction that America and Israel are to blame for almost everything that is wrong with the world”.

The Daily Express reports that Israel has announced plans to boost its security as part of its “Shield of the North” strategy to increase the number of bomb shelters along its border with Syria, according to Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The plan will be implemented in around 300 communities located roughly 28 miles from the Syrian border. It is estimated 550 public shelters, 800 schools and 65 hospitals and clinics will see an increase in protective measures.

The Daily Mail via AP reports that the US Ambassador to Israel says the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan is months away. David Friedman spoke with Israeli media at the new US Embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday. He said the plan will be launched “within months,” but had no exact date. The administration had reportedly aimed to roll out the plan next month. Friedman told Israel’s Channel 10 on Wednesday: “It’s not finalised … there’s an awful lot of listening going on… It’s not just the substance but also the timing and the presentation.”

The Daily Mail via AFP reports that The Palestinians have joined two UN agencies and the global convention to halt the spread of chemical weapons, a UN envoy said Wednesday, despite a threat of US funding cuts. Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Coordinator for the Middle East, told the Security Council that the Palestinians had joined the Geneva-based UN trade organization UNCTAD, Vienna-based industrial development agency UNIDO and the chemical weapons convention.

The Daily Mail via AFP reports that Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday approved a motion to hold a plenary debate on “recognising the Armenian genocide,” as relations between the Jewish state and Turkey continue their downward spiral.

In the Israeli media, both Yediot Ahronot and Haaretz prominently publish the photo of an Israeli F-35 jet flying over Beirut.  Yediot Ahronot includes the headline “Plane flies over Nasrallah’s head.”   Additionally, Israel Hayom quotes the commander of the Indian Air Force saying “Israel has air superiority in the region.”

Israel Hayom reveals satellite pictures of a secret Iranian missile production plant.  The revelation follows the New York Times report on Iran’s secret missile facility. Based on an investigation by researchers in California, they note that the Iranians were mainly engaged in the development of advanced rocket engines and rocket fuel systems.

Maariv leads on “progress in cease-fire talks with Hamas.”  The paper notes Israel’s demands are “a complete end of all rocket fire and tunnel digging by all organizations in Gaza; Palestinians will refrain from entering the buffer zone west of the border fence; and the Israeli MIAs and captives are to be released. In return, Israel will significantly ease restrictions at the border crossings into Gaza to allow more goods to enter.  The Egyptians will also ease restrictions at the Rafah border crossing.”

Yediot Ahronot reports that the IDF attacked another Hamas tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip before dawn yesterday morning with combat planes. Two targets that belong to Hamas’s naval forces were also attacked. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office issued a statement noting that the attacks were carried out in response to the infiltration of Israeli territory by Palestinians, as well as “the ongoing attempts to send gliders and kites into Israeli territory for terrorist purposes and to set fields on fire.”

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman gave interviews to Israel TV. On Channel 2 news he reiterated the US is still “an honest broker” in a potential Israeli Palestinian peace process.  He also expressed confidence that US President Donald Trump could bring the parties to a peace deal.  He said he believes the Palestinian leadership “will have no choice but to pursue” the Trump peace plan if the proposal can offer “a better future, more optimistic, more promising future to the Palestinian people”.

Maariv quotes Hamoud al-Habash, Abbas’s religious affairs advisor, calling Friedman a “terrorist settler,” in reference to the picture that showed the ambassador holding a photoshopped image of Jerusalem that featured the Third Temple in place of the el-Aqsa Mosque.  He called it a “provocative step that demonstrates a racist attitude and criminal incitement to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque”.  The Ambassador also referred to the incident in both interviews on Channel 10 and Channel 2, saying: “I was mortified, absolutely mortified. I thought it was a disrespectful, incredibly stupid thing to do and I spent the better part of the last 24 hours trying to make it clear that this doesn’t reflect my view, nor the United States.”

YNet reports that  Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman will seek approval for a proposal to construct 2,500 housing units immediately, with a further 1,400 planned for a later date, across 30 smaller communities in the West Bank. Lieberman said he was “committed to building in Judea and Samaria and we are fulfilling that commitment”.

Yediot Ahronot reports the Security Cabinet met yesterday at the National Crisis Management Center, which is situated in an underground bunker in Jerusalem, and approved a motion by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked to amend the declaration of war law. In the amended law, the Security Cabinet would have the authority to approve a declaration of war or a decision to launch a military operation that is liable to lead to war, ass opposed to being only in the hands of the Prime Minister and Defence Minister.

Maariv refers to Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid as the “foreign minister in a shadow government,” as today he is scheduled to take a group of about 40 foreign ambassadors and diplomats including from the UK on a security tour of Israel’s northern border.

Israel Hayom reports Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich is making Aliyah (immigrating to Israel).  He expected to land in Israel today as a new immigrant, after his visa in Britain has ended. He will probably live in Neve Tzedek neighbourhood in Tel Aviv.