The BBC and Reuters report on our main story, that Israel and Sudan are finalising a deal to normalise relations, with a signing ceremony expected following a transfer of power from the military to a civilian government in Khartoum.

The Financial Times releases an opinion piece saying “Israel has been experiencing political and social turbulence on a seismic scale of late. While the world hears of a shift in Israeli politics and shrugs it off as yet another victory for the political right, millions of Israelis and Jews are watching unfolding events with great concern. One alarming scenario worth paying close attention to is whether Israel may be changing from a liberal democracy to a non-democratic weak state”.

The Guardian reports that Israel conducted airstrikes on the central Gaza Strip early on Thursday, according to journalists and witnesses, hours after the military said it intercepted a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory. New rounds of rockets were fired from Gaza after these strikes, and fresh explosions could be heard from Gaza City about 3.15am local time, Agence France-Presse journalists reported.

Sky News reports that Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, shocked hi-tech professionals at a major cybersecurity convention in Tel Aviv on Wednesday when he revealed that the opening part of his speech was written by artificial intelligence software. In a recorded video greeting for Cybertech Global Tel Aviv 2023, Mr Herzog said: “I am truly proud to be the president of a country that is home to such a vibrant and innovative hi-tech industry.

The BBC and Reuters report that Iran has blamed Israel for a drone attack on a military site in the central city of Isfahan on Saturday. Its ambassador to the UN said findings indicated Israel “was responsible for this attempted act of aggression”. Iran, he said, reserves the right “to respond resolutely to any threats or wrongful actions” by Israel.

The Guardian releases an article saying “More than 50 artists, including the poet Benjamin Zephaniah and the Turner prize co-winner Tai Shani, have protested over the Barbican arts venue’s collaboration with the Israeli embassy in London in putting on a concert. Arguing that the Israeli government must be “held to account for its policies towards the Palestinian people”, the artists say the concert this weekend is “a cynical attempt to re-brand apartheid as diversity and military occupation as tolerance”. The concert is to be performed by the Jerusalem Orchestra East & West, which describes itself as “a multicultural orchestra, with members from all three religions, from all over the country and from all sectors that make up Israeli society”.

The Guardian also releases a newsletter reading “For months, the question of whether Israel and Palestine are on the brink of a third intifada has loomed over every story to come out of the region, with fears that the conditions for a major escalation in bloodshed are inexorably being put in place. In the last week, those fears have appeared closer than ever to being realised.”

The Independent reports that an ivory spoon dating back 2,700 years that was recently repatriated to the Palestinian Authority from the United States has sparked a dispute with Israel’s new far-right government over cultural heritage in the occupied West Bank. Israel’s ultranationalist heritage minister has ordered officials to examine the legality of the US government’s historic repatriation of the artifact to the Palestinians earlier this month and is calling for “annexing archaeology” in the occupied West Bank.

Yediot Ahronot’s Nahum Barnea publishes on the recent US diplomatic visits to Israel, and suggests that in exchange for American cooperation in relation to Iran and Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu has agreed to deescalate tension with the Palestinians, maintain the status quo on the Temple Mount, strengthen the Palestinian Authority and rein in the settlements. On the Iranian issue, the two countries moved much closer in their positions in the last few months. Iran’s decision to send drones to Russia to use in the war in Ukraine has hardened American public opinion against the Islamic Republic.

Barnea also suggests that Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s acting ruler, is posing difficult conditions before taking steps to normalise relations with Israel. Netanyahu must provide him with quiet on the Palestinian front and bring a reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and the Biden administration. That means US Congressional approval for the huge arms deal that was planned under Trump, ignoring events in Yemen and the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia, an official welcome at the White House for the prince, despite his involvement in the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Barnea suggests that Democrats are opposed because of Khashoggi; the Republicans are opposed because of the points this will give a Democratic president.

Kan Radio reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris yesterday and discussed the threat of Iran’s nuclear programme. Netanyahu told Macron that deterrence against Iran and its regional proxies must be enhanced. He called to impose harsh sanctions on the regime in Tehran and to put the Revolutionary Guards on the EU terrorist list. The prime minister and the French president also discussed the need to maintain regional stability, particularly in Lebanon, and to expand the circle of peace. Macron also reiterated his firm opposition to settlement expansion, which he said sabotages the chances of implementing a two-state solution.

Maariv reports Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara attacking the government’s planned judicial revolution on two fronts yesterday. First, she wrote to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that he must refrain from involving himself in initiatives to make changes in the justice system, and then sent a legal opinion to Justice Minister Yariv Levin containing fierce criticism of the proposed reform. The attorney general wrote Netanyahu that he must refrain from involvement because of the “likely concern of a conflict of interest between his personal affairs relating to his trial in which he is a defendant, and major components of the initiatives.” She called the proposed reforms a “dramatic change in the system of government that affects the essential democratic characteristics of the state.”

Netanyahu appealed to the High Court of Justice last night and said that he did not accept the attorney general’s opinion relating to him and asked for two weeks to respond to her letter”. Israel Hayom adds that Minister Ben Gvir said: “The attorney general is trying to intimidate the prime minister and the Israeli government. You don’t change policy with threats and the government will not cave.” Kan Radio reports that associates of Justice Minister Levin said that he would not hesitate to have the attorney general fired should he find it necessary in light of the worsening tension between her and the leaders of the coalition.

Channel 12 News reported last night about a compromise plan that was proposed recently by President Herzog to resolve the crisis. It calls to freeze the judicial reform for two weeks, during which negotiations would be held by a team or committee, and if the negotiations failed, the legislation could proceed. In response, minister Levin’s close associates said emphatically, “We will not suspend the legislation, not even for a minute.”

Yediot Ahronot also highlights events surrounding the “second Deri bill,” which stipulates that the High Court of Justice cannot intervene in ministerial appointments, saying: “an unprecedented event happened this week: coalition members were told that they must sign the bill. That’s reminiscent of the assassination of Julius Caesar, whom all the perpetrators stabbed with their daggers simultaneously to commit all of them to sullying themselves in the act.”

Ynet reports on Knesset Constitution Law and Justice Committee chair Simcha Rothman’s decision to propose to place curbs on the right to strike. The bill comes against the backdrop of a wave of nationwide strikes and protests against the government’s latest moves. The bill would reshape the power dynamic between employers and employees in Israel. Among other things, it intends to transfer the power to restrict work actions from Labour Courts to the Knesset, significantly limit the grounds for disputes, and prohibit trade unions from collecting membership fees from those unwilling to pay, severely impairing their ability to operate.

Ynet also reports that Israel’s Shin Bet has foiled a Hezbollah plot to recruit terrorists on TikTok. A Lebanese man on a TikTok account going by the name of Abu Ghassan has tried to radicalise young people in Jerusalem and upon establishing a personal connection, would move communication to encrypted Telegram app. Two residents of east Jerusalem were arrested for collusion with the recruitment effort, understood to be tied to Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group. At the behest of the Lebanese recruiter, the two suspects took up spying missions and photographed various Israeli locales, especially in Jerusalem, with a view to perpetrating terrorist attacks.