News Nosh: 8.10.18

APN's daily news review from Israel
Thursday, August 10, 2018

Numbers of the day:
48:41 - Percentages of Israelis who support/oppose opening an expansive military operation against the Gaza Strip.
29:64 - Percentage of Israelis who are satisfied/dissatisfied with the way Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is acting with Hamas. (Maariv Poll)

Front Page:
Haaretz
Yedioth Ahronoth
  • Gaza strike (Full page photo of people climbing over expansive rubble of blown up buildings in Gaza)
  • 18:00 IDF destroyed Hamas building in the heart of Gaza. 22:45 reports: “There was a ceasefire agreement”
  • The last bullet // Nahum Barnea
  • Netanyahu knows the truth // Simcha Goldin
  • The goal: To win time // Alex Fishman
  • Don’t let Hamas win // Yossi Yehoshua
  • The government isn’t sweating // Yoaz Hendel
  • “No one is driving us away from here” - Despite the shooting on Beersheva, some 10,000 brave fans came to cheer the champion (soccer team)
  • Denigrating - This is how the industry of political slandering on the Internet works
  • Missing Britney - Israel is drying out: Why are the big (musical) artists from abroad skipping over us this year
  • Children of the revolution - Meet the young people who are moving to Netivot with light in their eyes
  • Shake up in Maglan commando unit - New revelations: The worrying traditions in the elite unit
Maariv Weekend (Hebrew links only)
Israel Hayom
  • “The attacks will be more powerful until the quiet returns” - Battle in the south; Critical day between escalation and calm: Cabinet ordered IDF to act with power
  • The key: Significant and determined attacks // Amnon Lord
  • Make clear to Hamas the price and the loss // Yoav Limor
  • Ceasefire - Show of weakness // Yaakov Amidror
  • Hamas’ dilemma: (long-term ceasefire) arrangement or escalation // Prof. Eyal Zisser
  • The south wants quiet - and trusts the IDF // Gadi Yarkati
  • With a look towards the north: The reasons for restraint // Dr. Eran Lerman
  • From cherry tomatoes to disc-on-key: the Israeli inventions that changed the world
  • There is a judge in Jerusalem: Prof. Alex Stein the conservative was appointed to the High Court
  • Careful: Patients - Not just physical violence: Doctors and nurses break the silence and speak about the patients that sexually harass them
  • Life without him - Tal Ovadia speaks about the murder of her husband by the stabbing of a terrorist, just meters from their home
  • On Mosh’s head - Singer Mosh Ben-Ari speaks about the distance between his wild image and his quiet life
  • Stars of the Educational Channel from all times part from the beloved channel
  • Coordinating intentions: Israel and Hamas wanted a (long-term ceasefire) arrangement, but again found themselves in an escalation
  • Debts of millions and salary in dispute: What’s happening at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem?

 
News Summary:
At the time the newspapers went to print, Hamas had said that an Egyptian-mediated truce had been reached that would end some 24 hours of exchanges of blows between Hamas and Israel that erupted after Israel shot dead two Hamas commandos in a training exercise, mistakenly thinking they were shooting at Israel. Israel denied a truce had been reached, ‘in line with Israel's policy of ambiguity,’ wrote Ynet’s Elior Levy, but today was is clear that the truce is in effect. In those 24 hours, the violence between the two sides escalated significantly. Israeli strikes killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and her daughter and a Hamas military member and a Palestinian rocket severely injured a Thai worker in Israel. By midday, a Palestinian official said that the armed groups in Gaza were willing to end the round of fighting if Israel reciprocated. At 3PM, one long-range rocket was shot from Gaza at Beersheva, the largest city in southern Israel, for the first time since Operation Protective Edge four years, and landed in an open area without causing injuries or damage. At 6PM, Israel decimated an enormous 5-story building in the heart of Gaza City, which Israel said served Hamas interior security services. But a nearby resident told Haaretz that "the attacked building is an art and culture center which has no political or security use. The building also serves the Egyptian community that lives in Gaza. There is no reason to target this building other than harming a Palestinian cultural symbol." After a four-hour meeting at the IDF Headquarters, Israeli officials said that Hamas wanted to end the round of violence and that there was a low chance Israel would make a major operation in Gaza if no rockets were fired from Gaza overnight Thursday. At 22:45, the report of a ceasefire came out, which would go into effect at midnight. Today, security restrictions on citizens living in the area around the Gaza Strip, Netivot and the central Negev region were lifted.

Meanwhile, Professor Alex Stein, a new conservative and controversial justice who was appointed by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, was sworn in to the High Court on the same day that High Court Justice Esther Hayut said that Israel’s judges “are obligated to carry out their jobs without trepidation and without bias,” in an indirect response to the threat by Shaked this week that if the High Court rules the new nation-state law is unconstitutional, a “war between the branches” of government will break out.
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.