The Guardian, the Telegraph, Sky News, Daily Mail via AFP and the Daily Mail via PA report that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday called the US Ambassador to Israel a “son of a dog,” because of his support for Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Abbas, speaking at a Palestinian leadership gathering, also blamed Hamas for a bomb attack last week on the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Gaza, remarks that threatened reconciliation efforts with the Islamist group. Abbas accused Ambassador David Friedman of defending Israeli settlers in the West Bank by saying that they were building on “their land”. The slur drew rebukes from the US Ambassador and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Daily Mail, the Times, and the Telegraph report that Israeli security services have arrested an employee of the French consulate in Jerusalem for smuggling arms on behalf of Islamist terror group Hamas. Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency detained 24-year-old French citizen Roman Frank, who is a driver for the consulate, along with nine other suspects, including six Palestinians from Gaza. All of them are suspected of smuggling weapons from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip through Israel to Hamas operatives in the West Bank. Frank has a diplomatic passport but Israel does not afford junior employees of Jerusalem consulates immunity from prosecution. Sources said that while the French government believed all of its diplomatic staff should be given immunity, once they saw the evidence collected in the case, they waived any claim to protect him from prosecution. According to investigators, Frank was acting for financial gain, using his position as a driver of a diplomatic vehicle to transport more than 70 weapons into Gaza through the Israeli crossing at Erez and from there to the West Bank.

The Guardian, the Times and the Financial Times report on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s trip to the United States. He has been warned to set a distance between himself and US President Donald Trump, who some regional advisers have come to regard as volatile and unpredictable. Trump will receive Crown Prince Mohammed in the White House on Tuesday, after Trump’s high-profile trip to Saudi Arabia last May, when – on his first trip abroad as leader – he reset bilateral ties, which had become strained under Barack Obama. The White House meeting marks the beginning of a two-week, seven-city trip to the US, in which Prince Mohammed will travel with an entourage of officials and business leaders, seeking to strike deals with Silicon Valley firms and oil and gas companies in Texas. The Crown Prince has hinted at liberalising his country’s notoriously restrictive laws on women as he attempts to prove his zeal for reform. He said that more reforms were necessary, including laws to promote equal pay, before women achieved their “full rights”. He hinted that there would be a relaxation of rules that stipulate that women must wear the black abaya (gown) and head-covering in public.

The Guardian reports on the upcoming Egyptian election, focusing on opposition candidate Mousa Mostafa Mousa. Mousa told the Guardian he is cautiously optimistic about his chances of beating President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, despite entering the race after every credible candidate was removed. He has entered what remains a one-horse race at the very last minute, after five other candidates were jailed or otherwise prevented from running. Despite this, Mousa says he felt morally compelled to prevent the election from simply being a “referendum” on al-Sisi’s rule, and fends off criticism that he is simply there to give a veneer of democracy to elections al-Sisi is all but certain to win. “I’m no puppet. I’m a leader, in all things including my business,” he says. “Whoever wants a puppet could get one from the 104 political parties. He cannot make a puppet out of me, and everyone in this country knows that … Puppet is an imaginary word,” he said.

The Daily Mail via AFP reports that an Israeli military court has blocked a bid to make the high-profile trial of Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi public, meaning it will continue behind closed doors, her lawyer said Monday. “The Military Appeals Tribunal dismissed the defence’s appeal against a closed trial,” Tamimi’s layer Gaby Lasky wrote on Twitter. “A public trial was the only defence and it’s obvious that in its absence, Ahed Tamimi will not be entitled to a fair trial.”

The Independent reports an Israeli military court has agreed to the early release of soldier Elor Azaria. He will walk free in May after serving nine months of a 14-month jail term for the manslaughter of Abdul Fatah al-Sharif in the West Bank city of Hebron, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said. Azaria was initially given 18 months in jail, a sentence which was reduced to 14 months following an intervention in September by IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot. His term was cut further on Monday by the army’s prison parole board after military prosecutors agreed to Azaria’s request for early release. He will be freed on 10 May after serving less than two-thirds of his sentence.

The Guardian and the Daily Mail via AAP report that Former Melbourne school principal Malka Leifer, who is accused of child sex crimes, will remain behind bars after a successful appeal against her release to home detention in an Israeli court. An Israeli judge had said Leifer could be released to home detention earlier this month after a rabbi offered to take care of her while she awaited an extradition outcome. He later withdrew his support for Leifer to be released on house arrest.

BBC News Online reports that Turkish-backed Syrian rebels who seized the northern Syrian city of Afrin from a Kurdish militia on Sunday have been looting properties. A UK-based monitoring group said shops and military and government facilities had been raided. A rebel commander blamed “thieves” for the looting and said a unit had been set up to prevent further incidents.

The Telegraph reports that the son of the late Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi is to run as a candidate in the country’s presidential elections this year, according to local media reports. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was once the heir apparent to his father’s regime but is now wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity during his father’s brutal efforts to put down the 2011 rebellion against his rule. His candidacy was announced by officials in the Libyan Popular Front party during a news conference in Tunis on Monday.

Yediot Ahronot and Maariv report that Prime Minister Netanyahu, his wife Sara and his son Yair are likely to be questioned on suspicion of obstruction of justice in Case 4000, the Bezeq-Walla investigation. This follows a report yesterday that state’s witness Nir Hefetz instructed Shaul Elovitch and his wife to delete text messages from Sara Netanyahu and to destroy their mobile phones. Hefetz is suspected of being the person who conveyed messages and instructions from Netanyahu to Communications Ministry Director General Shlomo Filber and to Elovitch, who is the controlling shareholder of telecom provider Bezeq. He was also the liaison between Sara Netanyahu and Iris Elovitch, Shaul Elovitch’s wife, regarding coverage of the Netanyahus on the Walla website, which is owned by Bezeq. A statement issued on behalf of Netanyahu said: “The leak of material from the investigation, even if false, is the real attempt to obstruct the investigation. The Prime Minister abides and has always abided by the law. The allegations of obstruction are nonsense. There was no obstruction, there was nothing.”

Maariv quotes senior officials involved in the investigation who say that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit “crossed the Rubicon” in the last few months and his aides suggest that there will be no choice but to indict Netanyahu for bribe-taking in multiple cases.

Maariv reports that Abbas called the US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman a “son of a dog” and a settler.  In a speech he gave last night at a meeting of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah, Abbas commented on the American decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, saying: “The United States is legitimising the settlements. This was also done by senior American officials, first and foremost their Ambassador in Tel Aviv, David Friedman. He said: ‘They’re building on their land.’ You son of a dog, they are building on their land? He himself is a settler and his family is a settler family.”

Kan Radio reports that officials in Washington and Jerusalem condemned the statements made by Abbas. US envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt said that it was time for Abbas to choose between hateful rhetoric and efforts to improve the quality of life of his people. Earlier, Netanyahu said that the shock of the truth had caused the Palestinian leaders to lose their tempers after the US administration had stopped indulging them. Ambassador Friedman said in response: “Antisemitism or political discourse? Not for me to judge.”

Under the headline “Consulate of Terror,” Maariv reports that an employee at the French consulate in Jerusalem has been held in custody for a month after he was caught smuggling arms from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank in exchange for tens of thousands of shekels. The Southern District Attorney’s Office filed an indictment yesterday with the Beer Sheva District Court against the employee, Roman Frank, charging him with weapons offences and obtaining a benefit by deception under aggravated circumstances. In an opinion piece, Yossi Melman writes that “the affair is undoubtedly embarrassing for the French government, but the incident should be put in proper perspective. It is rare for diplomats or people bearing diplomatic immunity in Israel to assist terror organisations.”

Kan Radio News reports that the IDF is gearing up for the possibility of a security escalation on Land Day, which is marked this year on Passover eve, next Friday.

Kan Radio News also reports that an IDF force arrested one of the top Islamic Jihad operatives in the West Bank, Bassam al-Saadi, in Jenin last night.