The Times reports that Israel has a secret file that proves Iran was attempting to build a nuclear bomb, despite the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement. One of the 100,000 documents recovered by Mossad agents from Iran during a raid in January was an Iranian memorandum handing responsibility for the production of weapons-grade enriched uranium to the Defence Ministry. Israel has made some of the cache of documents available to Britain, France and Germany as it seeks to persuade the European signatories of the JCPOA to withdraw from the agreement.

The Times also published a lead article about Iran’s plans to build a nuclear bomb, which says “Iran has been exploiting the loopholes in a flawed nuclear deal and destabilising the Middle East”. The article criticises the European signatories of the JCPOA as being naive in their treatment of Iran and calls for Iran to “be put under pressure to come clean about its plans for a bomb”.

The Telegraph reports that Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas was ended by missile fire from Gaza yesterday, a matter of days after it brought an end to the worst flare-up of violence since the 2014 war. In response, the Israeli army said “fighter jets targeted 10 terror sites in three military compounds belonging to the Hamas terror organisation in the Gaza Strip”.

Mail Online reports that Israel intends to deduct funds from its payments to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to compensate for the cost of the fires that have been started by arson attacks from Gaza in recent weeks. Kites carrying firebombs into farmland in Israeli territory have caused an estimated 5m Shekels (£1m) of damage.

BBC News Online and the Independent report that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will make a state visit to North Korea, the first time leader Kim Jong Un has hosted a head of state since assuming power in 2011.

Writing in an opinion piece in the Guardian, Professor of Journalism at City University Roy Greenslade criticises a new bill that Israel’s Knesset is being asked to consider, which would ban the “the photographing and documenting” of IDF soldiers “with the intention of undermining the spirit” of Israel’s army. Grenslade says that if passed, the law would undermine Israel’s press freedom and democracy: “If they wish to uphold their claim to be living in a democratic state, they should vote overwhelmingly against Ilatov’s ill-considered proposal.”

Sky News Online reports that the UN has condemned the killing of a 21-year-old Razan al Najar, a medic who was shot while treating the injured during the Gaza protests last Friday. The IDF has announced they will investigate the death.

The Independent, Reuters and FourFourTwo magazine report that the head of the Palestinian Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, has called on Muslim football fans worldwide to burn images of, and shirts signed by, football player Lionel Messi if he plays in Argentina’s upcoming international football friendly against Israel in Jerusalem. The match is due to take place this Saturday, as part of Argentina’s preparations for this summer’s World Cup. Rajoub has personally overseen a long campaign to persuade football’s international governing body, FIFA, to impose sanctions against Israel.

The Times reports that Israel is participating in a US-led NATO exercise on the Russian border. Eighteen thousand soldiers from 18 NATO members are involved in exercises in Poland and the Baltic states as part of “Sabre Strike 18”.

Haaretz and Maariv report on the firebomb-bearing kites from Gaza and the government’s plans to combat them. Yesterday, firefighters put out a large fire that destroyed approximately 4,000 dunams of agricultural land near Kibbutz Or Haner, and also extinguished a fire in Shokeda Forest. One fire led to Route 34 being closed to traffic between Netivot and Yad Mordechai and train service between Ashkelon and Netivot suspended for two hours. Israeli forces have successfully intercepted 400 kites and balloons. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the National Security Council to take steps to deduct the compensation payments to the residents of the Gaza periphery communities for the arson from the money that is transferred to the Palestinian Authority.

Kan Radio News reports that the IDF is on a high state of alert ahead of Naksa Day tomorrow. A large number of IDF troops will be deployed along the Gaza border fence, including snipers and special units. The forces will be asked to show restraint so as not to cause an escalation. The IDF is also preparing for the last Friday of Ramadan.

In commentary in Maariv, Tal Lev Ram writes that “Israel enjoyed four years of nearly absolute quiet out of the Gaza Strip. That was an opportunity to take the initiative and to spearhead processes that would have improved the economic situation in the Gaza Strip, in alignment with Israeli interests. The army wanted that, cabinet ministers put forward proposals, but that failed to produce any change, and now that’s all history. It is currently going to be far harder to make concessions when terrorism is being used as a means for political extortion. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s message is that Israel needs to keep its focus on the north. That is a logical and pragmatic attitude, but it doesn’t absolve Israel of the need to enact clear policies in the south as well—military and/or political policies.”

Haaretz, the Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel report on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to Berlin, Paris and London.

Maariv reports on the interview with former Mossad director Tamir Pardo from last Thursday in which he said Netanyahu had asked the former Shin Bet director, Yoram Cohen, to install wiretapping devices to listen to him and the chief of staff, Benny Gantz, because of concern that sensitive information would leak (which Cohen refused). Former Shin Bet director Ami Ayalon came to Netanyahu’s defence yesterday and said that the Prime Minister’s request to wiretap senior security officials was not particularly exceptional. “If at issue was an operation that was extremely secret, where a leak would have endangered the safety of citizens or the state, even without the prime minister asking, it was the GSS’s job to ensure that nothing leaked,” he said. “What does the General Security Service do? If it has to wiretap, it makes a request through the proper channels and it is authorized to wiretap.”

Yediot Ahronot and Israel Hayom reports on the Israel 70 solidarity parade in New York yesterday.

Haaretz reports on the demonstrations in Jordan, arguing that the‘high cost of living is pushing Jordanians to demonstrate against the government’. 

Kan Radio News reports that young Palestinians disrupted the visit of senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub to the Old City in Jerusalem and demanded that he leave al-Aqsa Mosque. Rajoub’s aides said that they were activists affiliated with Hamas or with the Tahrir movement.