In the Telegraph, former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor argues that Britain has taken a vital first step towards a safer world by proscribing Hezbollah a terrorist organisation in its entirety, but now other European states need to follow.

In the New Statesman, Oz Katerji argues that Britain must rethink its strategy on Hezbollah. There is no need for “new” evidence, he says. Rather, there is simply evidence that none of the former Tory Home Secretaries saw a pressing urge to act upon. Katerji writes that it may well have taken cynical politicking from both Labour and the Tories for this correct change in policy to have finally been made, but after many years of foot-dragging, it is finally a step in the right direction. However, with the terrorist organisation back in the ascendency following its successful campaign of mass murder in Syria, true justice for their many victims seems as far away as ever, and this proscription barely scratches the surface.

Bloomberg reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is braced for an expected decision on whether the Attorney General intends to put him on trial, following a two-year corruption investigation that has polarised the country and could speed the end of Netanyahu’s political career. Netanyahu landed in Israel before dawn, cutting short an official visit to Moscow. Should Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit decide to charge the Prime Minister in any of the three cases in which he’s embroiled, Netanyahu would first be entitled to a hearing to present his side of the story in an attempt to change Mandelblit’s mind, a process that could take many months.

The Independent reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel will continue to strike against Iranian forces in Syria. Netanyahu arrived in Moscow on Wednesday for a long-awaited audience with an old ally in the Kremlin. The trip came amid mounting problems back home — a corruption scandal and re-election worries — that had even conspired to decide to delay the original date of the visit by a week. It was the first time Netanyahu had been granted a sit-down meeting with Putin since a Russian spy plane was downed over Syria in September. Before leaving for Moscow, the Israeli premier said he aimed to use the meeting to “prevent Iranian entrenchment in Syria”. The presence of Iranian forces close to Golan on the Israeli border — in apparent contravention of a Russian-brokered deal to withdraw the forces to at least 80km (50 miles) — were of particular concern, he said. Netanyahu referred to those tensions in his opening pitch in the Kremlin. Iran and its proxies posed the greatest threat to regional security, he said: “We are determined to continue our aggressive activity against Iran, which calls for our destruction, and against its attempts to establish itself militarily in Syria.”

Reuters reports that White House adviser Jared Kushner discussed his Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, and the two also discussed increasing US-Turkish cooperation and ways to boost economic conditions in the region. Kushner, who has responsibility for Washington’s Israel-Palestinian policy, has said the peace plan will address final-status issues of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, including establishing borders.

The BBC, Guardian and the Times report that at least 25 people have been killed and 40 injured after a train crash sparked a large fire at Cairo’s main railway station. The BBC reports that according to Egyptian officials, the train hit a buffer stop near the end of a busy platform at Ramses Station, which is in the city centre. The collision caused the train’s fuel tank to explode, setting the platform and nearby buildings alight. The cause of the crash is not yet clear, but hours later Transport Minister Hisham Arafat resigned. Witnesses described seeing several severely burned bodies in the latest disaster to hit Egypt’s rundown railways.

The Financial Times reports that there have been protesters in cities across Algeria every day this week expressing popular anger over the perceived insult of being ruled by Abdelaziz Bouteflika, an ailing president who is running for re-election despite not having been heard speaking in public for six years. Massive demonstrations are expected again on Friday as anonymous organisers seek to mobilise Algerians against plans for Bouteflika, who was incapacitated by a stroke in 2013, to secure a fifth term at the helm of the north African country, a big gas exporter to Europe.

In the Financial Times, Andrew England and Ahmed al-Omran write on why a jobs overhaul in Saudi Arabia could define the rule of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The Independent reports that Iran’s high-profile foreign minister rescinded his resignation less than 36 hours after he announced his departure from his position in an Instagram post. Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s top diplomat and a pillar of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, was back at work Wednesday standing alongside President Hassan Rouhani to welcome Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to the Iranian capital on a state visit broadcast live on television. Hours earlier Rouhani formally rejected Zarif’s resignation. “It is the belief of myself and the supreme leader you are a trusted, brave and devout individual standing on the front line against America’s multilateral pressures,” Rouhani wrote in a letter published Wednesday on the official presidential website. “I think your resignation is against the country’s interests and I do not accept it.”

In the Guardian, the editor of Iran’s Pulse News website, Mohammad Ali Shabani, asks whether Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Zavad Zarif, offered his resignation in order to boost his influence in the country. Shabani argues that: “Zarif’s futile attempt to quit could be a sign that he now wants to flex his political muscle within Iran.” He adds that what has become clear is that Zarif’s experiences as foreign minister during the past five-and-a-half years have changed him. Long gone is the US-educated diplomat who sternly avoided any domestic politicking. The man who has emerged from this crisis is someone now proven to be willing and able to enter the fray – and with stronger purpose and authority than before.

In the Times, Richard Spencer writes that: “Iran’s engagement with the West continues — on unfriendly terms”. Following the offer of resignation from the country’s Foreign Minister, Spencer argues that even if nothing has changed, we have learnt something new. Zarif’s resignation was in part an appeal over the heads of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — he is popular with both ordinary people, and lower-level functionaries in the government. The regime, he adds, continues to be fuelled by its revolutionary rhetoric. But those at the very top, including the Supreme Leader, have made clear they know that the engine cannot function without technocrats like Zarif, often Western-educated like him, and popular support.

The Independent reports that aid agencies have raised the alarm after dozens of children have died after leaving the last territory held by ISIS in eastern Syria. Nearly 15,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled the tiny enclave in the past week, overwhelming local Kurdish authorities who are dealing with the exodus. The al-Hol displacement camp in northern Syria, where the fleeing civilians are being taken, has swelled to more than 50,000 people. Around 2,000 are now sleeping rough in the arrivals area in poor weather conditions. Low temperatures, malnutrition and a lack of medical care have led to the deaths of at least 80 people – mostly children – who died on their journey to the camp or soon after arriving. Two thirds of deaths were of babies under the age of one, and the vast majority occurred in the past month.

In the Israeli media, Yediot Ahronot, Maariv and Haaretz all report that the Attorney General is expected to announce today that he recommends that the Prime Minister be indicted. Israel Hayom reports that following Benjamin Netanyahu’s successful meeting yesterday with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, the “crisis over downed Russian plane is behind us”.

Maariv reports that, according to officials in the Justice Ministry, the Attorney General will announce his decision at around noon today. In the Gifts Case (Case 1000) related to tycoons Arnon Milchan and James Packer, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is expected to announce to indict Prime Minister Netanyahu, subject to a hearing, on charges of fraud and breach of trust, despite the police recommendation to indict him for bribery. In the Walla-Bezeq Case (Case 4000) Mandelblit’s decision will be in accordance with the recommendations of the police investigators — to indict Netanyahu and Shaul Elovitch for bribery. In the Yediot Ahronot (Case 2000) Mandelblit was reportedly undecided until the very last moment whether to adopt the recommendations of the police, state attorney, and the district state attorney, and indict Netanyahu for bribery, as well as what charges be pressed against Yediot Ahronot publisher Noni Mozes. Netanyahu could only be brought up on charges of fraud and breach of trust, but that will only be known with certainty once the official announcement is made today.

Yediot Ahronot discusses the likely political ramifications of an indictment. They quote a senior coalition official who said in closed-door meetings that Netanyahu had applied pressure to merge right-wing parties Jewish Home and Jewish Power for personal reasons: “Netanyahu is counting the votes of the MKs who will be on his side after he is indicted, pending a hearing, in the event that there is an attempt either to replace him or call on him to resign. Jewish Power will be with him.” In the papers view: “If indicted, Netanyahu does not have to worry about the Likud. The Likud ministers and MKs are unlikely to call on him to resign or to declare himself incapacitated. The same is true for the Jewish Home and Shas. The weak links are the New Right and Kulanu. Minister Kahlon said that after a hearing, Netanyahu will not be able to continue to serve. ‘Everything will fall apart by itself,’ he said. Bennett and Shaked have a greater dilemma: they cannot defend Netanyahu’s actions, some of which they condemned on the level of principle, but speaking out clearly against him is liable to seen by the voters as an attempt to ‘bring down a right-wing government’. The assessment is that Bennett and Shaked will decide based on what the charges are.”

In the commentary in Yediot Ahronot, Shimon Shiffer speculates: “Mandelblit’s anticipated announcement today to indict Netanyahu may, possibly, cause votes to shift from the right wing bloc to the centre-left bloc. But there is also the chance that the opposite will happen: Netanyahu will be able to exploit Mandelblit’s announcement to underscore his contention that he is a ‘victim of media propaganda,’ and to add more fuel to his incitement bonfire by alleging that the attorney general ‘was unable to withstand pressure from the left wing.’”  He also argues: “The prevailing assumption is that many of his voters have no problem with the cigars, champagne and the expensive suits that the Netanyahu couple received. Some of them say that Netanyahu is “indispensable,” and Netanyahu, counting on this, will most likely repeat his statement: ‘The prime minister is only replaced at the polling stations’ and not by attorneys and police officers. Another phrase likely to be heard ad nauseam in the next few days from the Prime Minister’s people and from his herd of supporters is the ‘presumption of innocence’ enjoyed by every person who is indicted. It could be that this public indeed believes this, and indeed, Netanyahu will enjoy this right on election day. Anyone seeking an illustration of this complexity can find it in the pictures of Netanyahu at his meeting yesterday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, while at the same moment in Israel, the news was about his impending indictment. On the one hand, he is a leader at the peak of his power who meets with other world leaders — while on the other hand, he is a political figure who chose illegal methods — according to the indictment — to hold onto his political power.”

Maariv reports that a house in the Eshkol region, next to the Gaza border, was damaged by an incendiary balloon rigged with explosives. The balloon exploded in the air near a house in Kibbutz Nir Oz. No one was injured but slight damage was caused. The family was in the house during the explosion. The mother, Renana Yaakov, said that they now have come to the realisation that incendiary balloons are a dangerous threat, not just balloons that explode. In response the Israel Air Force attacked a Hamas military compound in the central Gaza Strip last night.

Haaretz reports that Iran is smuggling upgrades for Hezbollah’s missile arsenal through Syria in suitcases. The report was based on two recent pieces of research, one of which was produced by BICOM. According to the paper, “the upgrades, which are based on satellite navigation systems (GPS), are meant to improve the missiles’ accuracy. The kits are no bigger than a carry-on suitcase and can thus easily be smuggled aboard a plane. Iran is mainly trying to upgrade Hezbollah’s Zelzal-2 missiles, which have a range of up to 200 km. According to Israeli intelligence, the Lebanese organisation has around 14,000 such missiles”.

Kan news reports that the deal the US administration is promoting between Israel and the Palestinians will not propose the creation of a Palestinian state, but rather Palestinian autonomy. It said that in the framework of the agreement, Israel would remove the majority of the military roadblocks and would permit the Palestinians freedom of movement and trade, but would hold onto its security control, including in the Jordan Valley. The settlement blocs will remain under Israeli control, but will not be expanded and the isolated settlements will be removed. The plan will also include the return of up to 30 to 60,000 Palestinian refugees to either Gaza or the West Bank and an agency will be established that will compensate the offspring of the refugees from 1948.