The Daily Express and Daily Mail report on Israel’s use of the David’s Sling aerial defence system near the Syrian border. The Daily Express report that the rockets, coming from Syria triggered red alert sirens in Northern Israel. After the operation, the IDF published a statement on Twitter saying:  “Following the reports of sirens sounding in northern Israel, it was concluded that the rockets were from internal fighting in Syria, where they later fell.” The Daily Mail reports that the interceptor missile, a joint US-Israel development was used for the first time on Monday. An IDF defence official said Israel had identified two surface-to-surface SS-21 rockets launched from Syria carrying a payload of hundreds of kilograms that they believed were headed for Israeli-controlled territory. The IDF reported there were no injuries or damage, with the rockets landing in Syrian territory.

Reuters and Business Insider report on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to focus on the Iranian presence in Syria. Business Insider reports that Netanyahu argued Israel’s position that it expects Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Iranian-backed allies to honour the 1974 agreement, and that Israel will continue to act to stop Iran from establishing a permanent military presence in Syria. Reuters reports that the Russian embassy in Israel tweeted that Lavrov and armed forces chief General Valery Gerasimov discussed with Netanyahu, Assad’s advance in southwest Syria and “issues related to Israeli border security”. According to Israeli officials however, Netanyahu disagreed with Russia’s offer to keep Iranian forces 100km (62 miles).

The Jewish Chronicle and the Daily Mail report on former Minister Tzipi Livni becoming Israel’s opposition leader in the Knesset. The Jewish Chronicle reports that the move forms part of deal agreed with Labour Party Chairman Avi Gabbay. Ms Livni has agreed that her Hatnuah Party will again run in the next parliamentary elections in the Zionist Union electoral alliance with Labour. The Daily Mail reports that Israel’s Labour Party is the largest single opposition party in the Knesset, however Avi Gabbay is barred from serving as opposition leader as he is not a member of Parliament.

The Times reports on the Trump administration’s threats made to Iran. In an “all-caps” tweet addressing Iran, Trump said: “We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence & death. Be cautious!” In response to this, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, hit back on Twitter, imitating the US president’s style: “We’ve been around for millennia & seen fall of empires, incl [sic] our own, which lasted more than the life of some countries. Be cautious!”

The FT has a leader criticising Israel’s “Nation-State” law and says it points Israel in a dangerous direction. The leader says the “new laws have the effect of privileging Jewish identity over democratic values, thereby eroding one of the principles on which the Israeli state was founded”. The FT also says that in longer term, the Knesset risks undermining the pluralist nature of the Israeli state, risking further conflict.

Daniel Barenboim’s writes about the “Nation-State” law in the Guardian, and says that “Israeli Arabs are being made second-class citizens. This form of apartheid violates the founding commitment to equality”. Barenboim comments further that “seventy years on, the Israeli government has just passed a law that replaces the principle of equality and universal values with nationalism and racism”.

The Independent reports that the Syrian government has said the evacuation of the White Helmets rescue workers was a “criminal operation” undertaken by “Israel and its tools”. Around 400 of the first responders were allowed to cross into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and then to Jordan in a huge and complex operation. The operation to rescue the rescuers is the first of its kind.

In the Israeli media both Maariv and Haaretz lead on the Russian proposal to keep Iranian forces 100km away from the border with Israel.  According to Maariv, Israel is prepared to accept that, but only as a temporary measure. Israel’s objective is to have the Iranians leave Syria altogether.

The papers also report the incident yesterday morning when sirens were heard across the upper Galilee and on the Golan.  Maariv says “the wand that didn’t do its magic” and reports this was the first time that the IDF Spokesperson’s Office confirmed that the David’s Sling anti-missile system had been used. The paper also suggests one possibility is that Assad’s army fired the missiles as part of a deceptive ruse to check the alertness of Israel’s aerial defences.  Ultimately, the two Syrian missiles landed in Syrian territory, about one km east of the Israeli border, and the two interceptor missiles did not engage with the enemy missiles. One interceptor missile self-destructed over the Sea of Galilee and its parts fell in Israel. It still isn’t clear what happened to the second interceptor missile.  The inquiry has also found that the decision that was made to fire the interceptor missiles was the correct decision.

Yediot Ahronot reports that the security cabinet is expected to approve a ten year, £8.2bn defence program for the IDF focused primarily on defending the home front from missile attack. A senior government official yesterday described the program as unprecedented in scope: “There’s never been a program of this kind before, certainly not at such an enormous cost and on such an enormous scale. It is a broad-scale offensive and defensive program.”

Kan radio news includes an interview with a senior official in the Syrian White Helmets. He said that his organisation had not been in contact with Israel before the evacuation and that only just before the evacuation did it learn that it was Israel that would remove its members from Syria. He said that the planning of the evacuation took just over a week and that the members of the White Helmets had not asked Israel for help. He said that the organisation was not concerned that the report Israel had helped in the evacuation would disrupt similar operations in the future, saying that the greater danger was the Assad regime. Last night the White Helmets issued an official statement thanking various countries, but did not mention Israel.

Haaretz reports Palestinian officials saying that local humanitarian groups who work with the United States Agency for International Development have scaled back their activities in recent months and are preparing to fire employees and shut down projects as a result of the Trump administration’s total freeze of financial aid to the Palestinians.  The funding freeze has also hurt local companies used by USAID as contractors for economic projects, as well as Jewish-Arab coexistence groups that rely on American financial support for their activities.

The Jerusalem Post quotes Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as he vowed to continue funding Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel and families of Palestinians killed in attacks on Israelis:  “If we are left with one penny, we will spend it on the families of the prisoners and martyrs.” Abbas was speaking during a meeting he held in his office with families and relatives of Palestinian “martyrs” and former security prisoners.

Maariv cover Tzipi Livni’s “comeback” as opposition chairperson.  In an interview this morning on Kan radio news Livni has said that the responses she had received to her appointment bolstered her sense that the current government could be replaced.  She hoped that the people currently straddling the fence would join the Zionist Union. She said that she was speaking to everyone about enlarging the camp and joining an emergency coalition.