Israeli Press
Israel's Sunday papers move the Al-Aqsa line and count Likud's seats
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
The Newsdesk gathers reporting from wire services and primary sources and rewrites every story in-house before publication. How our journalism is made →
Two files dominated the Israeli press on Sunday: a holy site whose rules changed again, and a party list that decides the next Knesset.
Haaretz carried the morning's most consequential item. Josh Breiner reported that the police have eased their restrictions on Jewish prayer at the Al-Aqsa compound once more and now allow prayer books inside, months after they first permitted prayer sheets. The paper described it as a new change to the status quo.
The same liveblog led with hundreds of Israelis demonstrating around the country against the government's anti-Arab racism. At Habima Square in Tel Aviv about 400 gathered to demand a state commission of inquiry into the failures of 7 October and safeguards for the coming election.
Eyal Eshel, whose daughter was killed that day, told them: "A country that does not investigate the greatest failure in its history cannot truly fix it."
Ynet gave its opinion page to Dr Michael Milstein of Tel Aviv University's Dayan Center, who wrote that the siege at Qusra is not a historical accident but the direct product of the settlement revolution in the West Bank, dressed in the language of security.
The site also reported Israeli air and artillery strikes on the Ali Taher ridge in south Lebanon, after a drone attack on Saturday wounded an officer and two soldiers. The army said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in response. Lebanese officials put Saturday's death toll at eleven, children among them. Defence Minister Israel Katz said no account on any front will be left unsettled.
Maariv counted the Likud primaries due on Monday: about 34 ministers and members of Knesset chasing roughly 17 realistic places, Netanyahu already intervening in the districts, and a harder battle waiting over the reserved slots he distributes himself.
Underneath the campaign, Ynet examined a quieter dispute — Israel allows only those physically in the country to vote, and the organised flights bringing Israelis home for election day are now being argued over as possible campaign financing. Yohanan Plesner of the Israel Democracy Institute set out the rules.
