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The Guardian publishes an opinion piece by a Palestinian, who writes: “Death tolls and cliched phrases in an ill-informed, biased or unquestioning media about cycles of violence are not appropriate or sufficient for relaying the power imbalance of an occupier and occupied. The violence we Palestinians are exposed to on a daily basis is not just from the Israeli army’s weapons but is also deep and structural”.

The Guardian also publishes three letters from readers responding to Jonathan Freedland’s opinion piece, published earlier in the week.

Reuters reports Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party saying that Israel will not freeze Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank, a week after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Israel to halt construction. “There will be no construction freeze in Judea and Samaria period,” a statement from Religious Zionism said. Senior members of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition have sought to further expand Jewish settlement in the West Bank, which was captured by Israel in a 1967 war and where Palestinians have long aimed to establish a state. Most world powers consider Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal.

Reuters also reports Israel’s NewMed Energy forecast on Tuesday that the country’s nascent sovereign wealth fund will get a 52 billion shekel ($15 billion) injection in the coming decade from its two main natural gas fields. “From today until 2033, an amount of about 52 billion shekels will accumulate in the wealth fund just from the Tamar and Leviathan reservoirs,” Abu told a parliamentary panel, referring to Israel’s two largest natural gas fields (for a detailed analysis of Israel’s natural gas potential see Calev Ben-Dor’s article in this week’s Fathom).

The top focus among all leading Israeli media outlets remains the devastating aftermath of the earthquakes that struck in south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday. Much of the Israeli coverage focuses on efforts being made by the Israeli delegation in Turkey to help locate and extract survivors and to treat the injured. Maariv reports that Israeli emergency teams, headed by the IDF Medical Corps with support from the Defence Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the Health Ministry, will depart today for southern Turkey to erect a field hospital. The delegation includes 230 doctors, paramedics, nurses, officers and soldiers. Near the city of Adana, an Israeli rescue team, including about 150 IDF officers and conscripted soldiers, has been on the ground for two days. Haaretz adds that an earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter Scale was also recorded in the West Bank on Tuesday night. According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center, the epicentre of the quake was some 17.4 miles north-east of Nablus.

The Constitution, Law and Justice Committee is expected to press on today with deliberations on legislation that is designed to facilitate the government’s proposed judicial overhaul, in hope of having some of the legislation ready to be introduced to the Knesset plenum for a first reading vote by next week. Maariv reports that the fast-tracked legislation prompted a decision by the Movement for Quality Government and other protest organisations to hold a demonstration outside the Knesset next Monday instead of in the streets of Tel Aviv this coming Saturday night. The demonstration in Jerusalem on Monday is to coincide with a workers’ strike to protest the expedited legislation. Movement for Quality Government Chairman Eliad Shraga said, “As we alerted and warned, Netanyahu and his partners are beginning to dismember the Zionist dream in practice. We will stand outside the Knesset, and we will show them that the Jewish people, which dreamt of independence and freedom for 2,000 years, won’t be silent when a group of corrupt politicians steal freedom away from it once again.” Today, a group of IDF reservists are planning to begin a two-day protest march to the Supreme Court building in Jerusalem. The march will be joined by several prominent reservists, including former Mossad director, Tamir Pardo, and retired IDF general, Tal Russo.

Kan News reports that the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee will begin deliberations this morning on the bill to change the composition of the Judges Selection Committee. The bill would prohibit the courts from striking down Basic Laws and would establish that the Judges Selection Committee will have nine members, five of whom are government ministers and members of the ruling coalition. The parliamentary opposition is to have one representative on the committee. The remaining three spots on the committee will be occupied by the current president of the Supreme Court and two retired Supreme Court justices to be nominated by the Justice Minister with the agreement of the Supreme Court president.

Israel Hayom reports that MK David Amsalem (Likud) has agreed to join the government after receiving a position as minister in the Justice Ministry. Amsalem will also be the regional cooperation minister and will liaise between the government and the Knesset. That position was formerly held by Yoav Kisch. It is not yet clear what Amsalem’s responsibilities will be inside the justice ministry. Earlier this week, Israel Hayom reported on talks held between Amsalem and senior officials close to the Prime Minister. Amsalem presented an ultimatum in the course of those talks and said that if his dispute was not resolved this week he would remain outside the government until the end of the current Knesset’s term in office. Last week, MK David Bitan (Likud) said that if Amsalem’s demands were not met, “Netanyahu will pay a political price.”

Walla News reports that the United States has asked Israel for a “temporary halt” to construction in the West Bank and to the demolition of illegal Palestinian houses. The Americans reportedly proposed that the Palestinians, in exchange, would suspend their actions against Israel in the UN and would resume security coordination with Israel. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said, “There neither is, nor will there be any construction freeze and the law will continue to be enforced.” Israel Hayom reports Israeli political officials responded angrily to public remarks made by CIA Director William Burns, detailed in our main story, about the mounting tide of violence. “External and gross intervention,” is how MK Ohad Tal (Religious Zionist Party) described Burns’s remarks.

Ynet reports that the Israeli Foreign Ministry is considering recruiting Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo to promote the possibility of normalisation with Saudi Arabia. According to the report, Israel is hoping to benefit from the player’s recent transfer to Saudi club Al Nassr. Officials believe that through his status and millions of followers on social media, Ronaldo can contribute to the rapprochement between Jerusalem and Riyadh. The two countries do not have official diplomatic relations. For the moment, no decision has been made by the Israeli officials, as this possibility is still being examined by the Foreign Ministry.

Ynet reports on events in London, where an event with Arab Israeli Yoseph Haddad titled “Life as an Israeli Arab” hosted by the UCL Israeli Society led to a counter-protest with over 200 anti-Israel protesters who openly chanted for violence in the streets of London on Tuesday. The event, under heavy police and security presence, welcomed Yoseph Haddad who shared his story as a minority in Israel and spoke about his experiences in the IDF and the Second Lebanon War, battling Hezbollah. At the start of the anti-Israel protest, organisers chanted “free Palestine from the river to the sea” and marched from the centre of campus to Haddad’s lecture, blocking the entrance to the building and preventing attendees from leaving without being guarded by security. In addition to the chants and calls for violence, anti-Israel protesters were spotted waving photos of Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei, as well as cursing at journalists covering the event.