BBC News, The Times and The Economist report on the US raid that killed Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi on Thursday. The Independent and The Guardian profile al-Qurayshi, noting that while he led the terrorist group for less than three years, he played a central role in the group’s most heinous crimes. When he was chosen to lead the so-called caliphate, he was a relatively unknown figure with little battlefield experience. He was also instrumental in the genocide of the Yazidis, which led to the death of thousands of men and the enslavement of women and girls. He also orchestrated mass killings of Shia civilians and members of the security forces after Mosul was overtaken by IS in 2014.

A video report from BBC News examines the White House situation room during the time of the operation that killed al-Qurayshi, as described by Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer. The Telegraph also examines the logistic behind the US raid that killed al-Qurayshi and outlines the months of preparation that went into the operation. The Guardian presents a ‘visual guide’ to the attack with maps, videos and images detailing the operation and aftermath.

Gordon Corera writes for BBC News about why killing al-Qurayshi was key for the US. He says: “There have been concerns in recent months from counter-terrorism officials that [IS] was trying to reconstitute in Iraq and Syria and build greater capacity … Washington will hope the killing of al-Qurayshi will halt any resurgence in its tracks.”

Martin Chulov writes for The Guardian about how the death of al-Qurayshi will be a setback for IS, but the group is not entirely crippled. He argues: “Without Sunnis being able to meaningfully shape their outcomes while watching political rivals cement their gains, IS’s message of restoring lost glories and dignities will remain potent for some – just as it was when the terrorist juggernaut first gained steam. It is consequently still active. In Deir Azzour province, the anti-IS coalition is carrying out raids against IS targets most days.”

BBC News reports that Iran has been accused of creating a fake Facebook scheme targeting nationalist Jews with the goal of stoking division and inflaming tensions with Palestinians. According to an Israeli watchdog called FakeReporter, the goal was to fuel “religious war by amplifying fear, hatred and chaos”.

David Gardner writes in the Financial Times about how recent missile and drone attacks on the UAE show Iran is unwilling to compromise. He argues that while Iran has been crippled by sanctions, it seems to have gained confidence from China. Iran uses its Houthi-backed rebels in Yemen to pursue its own agenda on Israel, specifically referencing the attack on the UAE that coincided with the historic visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

In the Israeli media, the police’s alleged illegal use of the Pegasus spyware continues to dominate the papers. Kan Radio reports that the police employed the Pegasus spyware in some 2,000 investigations over the past seven years. The files from the investigations have been collected and will be sent early next week to an investigative committee set up by former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit. A senior police official said that the police was ready for any probe and that any of its members who turn out to have acted illegally must be prosecuted.

Maariv follows the revelations that the police used the Pegasus software to hack the phone of state’s witness Shlomo Filber in the Netanyahu trial. Netanyahu’s attorneys have motioned the Jerusalem District Court to order the State Attorney’s Office to reveal all of the material obtained in the investigation through Pegasus and other spyware. Filber’s testimony is due to be heard in two weeks. Yesterday a similar motion was filed by Case 4,000 suspects Shaul and Iris Elovitch’s defence teams. The State Attorney’s Office said that the matter is being examined in depth.

All the papers note that members of the centre-left bloc in the coalition are against implementing the plan that will make it possible to build a new settlement in the Evyatar outpost after this was given a green light by outgoing Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is adamantly opposed it. He wrote a letter to Prime Minister Bennett stating, “Any step taken to implement this plan, which as you know was done without consulting me and without my consent, including declaring this state land or issuing a special planning order, is liable to have severe diplomatic consequences and undermine foreign relations, first and foremost with the US, and this has since been made clear by the US administration on the highest levels.” Labour Party Chairwoman Merav Michaeli said: “There’s no need for an opinion of the Foreign Ministry to know what we have been saying repeatedly: building Evyatar will badly hurt relations with our closest allies and Israel’s strategic interests. Moving ahead with Evyatar is playing politics at the expense of the state’s security and its future. The Labour Party will continue to fight for Israel’s security interests.”

Yediot Ahronot publishes an interview with Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev, who this week clashed with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi over resources and responsibility on detaining and arresting Israeli settlers involved in violent disturbances with Palestinians in the West Bank. According to Bar-Lev, IDF is the sovereign in the territories and should be putting more resources into helping with police work in the West Bank. Bar-Lev said the current approach of law enforcement being in the hands of the Police in the West Bank is wrong and in not keeping with the law.

Israel Hayom publishes an op-ed by former National Security advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat about the Amnesty report. Ben-Shabbat writes: “Not even a week after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Amnesty UK showed us what modern-day antisemitism is, the kind that disguises itself as pursuit of human rights and justice, that strives to deny the Jewish people the right to self-determination, and that applies a double standard to Israel alone. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair once said that many of those delegitimizing Israel will deny it vehemently. They will claim their remarks are legitimate criticism of Israel, whose actions they view as human rights and international law violations. This is also the case with the Amnesty report. Israel wages many struggles, constantly, in various arenas, the biggest one of which is the struggle for the truth. Allegations against it change, transform, morph, but their purpose is the same: to challenge the legitimacy of the Jewish state.”

Commenting in Yediot Ahronot on the COVID death rate in Israel and the minor attention this has received, Sever Plocker writes: “We did it. Israel is in first place, ahead of all the other developed countries, right at the top, in the daily and weekly number of deaths from Covid relative to the population. No minister and no politician see any moral need to console, to hug, to say in a choked voice: the deaths are horrible, I don’t know how we reached this point, I apologise to the families, I apologise to the nation … not here. Here, the funerals take place in silence, in quiet indifference. None of those who made the fateful decisions—at least some of which were mistaken and tragic—stood up to say something. To bow their heads. Israel has entirely lost its image as a society of solidarity that is super sensitive to the deaths of its residents.”

All the papers note that Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk was called to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem for a reprimand after having harshly criticised Israel’s policy on Ukraine’s crisis with Russia. The Ukrainian ambassador wrote on Facebook that Israel’s foreign minister would rather adopt Russian propaganda and ignore statements by Israel’s allies who say that there is a serious chance that Russia will invade Ukraine. Foreign Minister Lapid said this week that he did not think there would be a violent confrontation between Russia and Ukraine and that he did not believe a world war would erupt. Lapid added that this clash was distracting attention from the nuclear talks in Vienna and that Israel would like to receive greater attention from the US so that dangerous things will not happen there.