BBC News Online, the Times, the Telegraph, the Independent, the Guardian, the Evening Standard, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express report on the first day of Prince William’s trip to Israel. He met Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Jerusalem residence after laying a wreath to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. Earlier William was taken on a guided tour of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem. It recounts the history of the extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis during the Second World War. Prince William learned about the individual stories of victims through their possessions, other artefacts and moving testimonies. He also met two survivors who escaped Nazi Germany for the safety of Britain. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis joined William and took part of the ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance, where the Duke laid the wreath. He also meet President Reuven Rivlin, who told the Duke he was arriving “not just as a prince but as a pilgrim to the Holy Land,” before appealing for his help as an envoy in the peace process. “I know you are going to meet [Palestinian Authority] president Abbas,” he said. “I am asking you to send a message of peace.” According to the Daily Express he also played football in Jaffa, just outside of Tel Aviv in Israel where he met young people from two football-based youth programmes, The Equaliser and The Peres Centre for Peace. The Daily Mail also reports that he met Israeli model Bar Refaeli at a garden party hosted at British Ambassador to Israel David Quarrey’s private residence. Prior to the reception he visited Frischman beach with Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and had a chance to play “footvolley” with a number of local residents. The visit is seen as hugely significant for UK-Israel relations and comes amid a period of increased tension in the region.

HuffPost UK published a column by BICOM CEO James Sorene who argues that although the build up to Prince William’s visit was dicey, his Middle East visit will be a triumph. He writes that “by visiting [Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority]  in turn he can carefully wield his immense soft power to put them under the spotlight and give them all much needed focus and attention.”

The Times published a column by Diplomatic Editor Roger Boyes who argues that “a shift in geopolitics has made the visit [of Prince William to Israel] possible — and a cultural change in the Foreign Office, which has for many decades advised the royal household that it is better to don the appropriate headgear and butter up Arab autocrats than engage with the gritty detail of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship. The fear of giving offence to princelings has been the defining trait of the so-called camel corps of Britain’s Arab enthusiasts within the Foreign Office”.

The Telegraph published an editorial which argues that “the symbolism of [Prince William’s visit], therefore, cannot be overrestimated and its importance has not been lost on Israel”. They also write: “Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin asked him to take a message of peace to Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority. It would be nice to think that the Prince might have helped to advance the search for a political settlement in a troubled region.”

The Daily Mail reports on the King David Hotel, where Prince William is staying, quoting the hotel’s Director of Operations, Sheldon Ritz. He told the Jewish News: “I’ll be the one going up with him in the elevator, taking him to his suite and explaining how everything works, because it’s pretty high-tech, so I’ll be with him for about ten minutes, but they said I shouldn’t initiate any conversation … He’s so well-liked, it’s unbelievable. He’s staying here for three nights, which is quite a long time, and we feel very honoured that the whole time he’s in the region he’s staying with us.”

The Sun has published an explanation of Jerusalem and Trump’s decision to move the US embassy there. It also explains why “Prince William is caught up in a diplomatic row over Jerusalem’s status”.

The Times reports that Israel struck a suspected weapons depot near Damascus airport yesterday morning in the latest attack on Iranian military targets in Syria. The missiles hit an arms store at about 01:00am local time, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). A cargo plane from Iran, which had landed at the airport earlier, dropped the shipment of weapons that were bound for Iran-backed militias in the country, Rami Abdulrahman, the SOHR’s head, said. Syrian state media reported that two Israeli missiles struck near the airport, but gave no further details. Iran is one of President Assad’s staunchest allies and has deployed troops to Syria.

The Guardian has published a column by Arwa Mahdawi who argues that “allowing women behind the wheel is a PR move by Saudi Arabia, designed not to modernise the kingdom, but to render a repressive regime more palatable. Yet many Western media outlets seem to be falling for this strategic ‘women-washing,’ as you might call it, hook, line and blinker”.

BBC News Online reports that Syria’s army has launched an assault on rebel-held areas of the divided city of Deraa, after making significant gains elsewhere in the country’s south-west. State media said troops had stepped up their bombardment ahead of an operation to take the road linking Deraa with the nearby Jordanian border. Earlier, they cut in half a strip of rebel-held territory running north from the city by capturing two key towns. Some 45,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in the past week.

The Independent published a column by Robert Fisk that the “US has given up on the overthrow of [President] Assad in Syria”.

The Daily Express reports that explosions have been reported in the Gaza Strip with sources saying a car was targeted by an Israeli airstrike. Initial reports claim a Hamas operative was hit in the strike.

The Daily Mail via AFP reports that a major Israeli winery faced calls for a customer boycott Tuesday after its chief executive admitted to discriminating against employees of Ethiopian origin to accomodate demands from Jewish hardliners. An investigative report on public television Kan included a recording of Barkan Winery CEO Gilles Assouline saying he would have to relocate three workers of Ethiopian origin.

The Daily Mail via AP reports that Israel’s national carrier El Al says it will take a firmer stand against what critics say is discrimination after the airline moved two female passengers under pressure from ultra-Orthodox travellers. El Al CEO Gonen Usishkin said in a statement on Monday that he had ordered that “any traveller who refuses to sit next to another traveller will be immediately removed from the flight”. The statement comes after the airline moved two female passengers last week after male ultra-Orthodox travellers refused to sit next to them. Similar incidents have previously been reported.

The Duke of Cambridge’s visit to Israel yesterday is reported prominently and positively by Israeli media outlets this morning, despite the widespread criticism in Israel leading up to his arrival over Buckingham Palace’s decision to define the Prince’s visit to East Jerusalem as part of his visit to the Palestinian Authority. Maariv’s front-page headline refers to him as “Prince Charming,” while a headline deeper in the paper dubs him, “William the Conqueror.” The paper details the Prince’s schedule, and emphasises that the British embassy has made certain to stress that the visit was not political and that the prince came to Israel to illustrate the excellent relations between the two countries and to get a little “taste” of the people in Israel.

The Israeli media also report on rockets that were apparently fired from Gaza in response to an air strike that was carried out yesterday afternoon by the Israel Air Force in the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza, targeting the vehicle of a commander in Hamas’s military wing. An IDF spokesperson described the commander as being involved in flying explosive kites into Israeli territory and who, according to Palestinian reports, was injured in the attack. In related news, Kan Radio News reports that the Qatari representative for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, Mohammed el-Amadi, returned to the Gaza Strip last night to supervise Qatari projects there that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Hamas Spokesman in the Gaza Strip Fawzi Barhoum said that the occupation and the intentional assault on peaceful demonstrators and resistance activists demand the resistance’s swift response.

Last night, Hadashot television news reported that Hamas will not accept an Israeli proposal to set up a seaport in Cyprus to serve the Gaza Strip unless Jerusalem concedes to its demands for the release of dozens of its members held since 2014. According to Hadashot, senior Hamas officials say a precondition for talks on a deal of any kind is the release of over 50 of its jailed members that were freed in a 2011 prisoner exchange and then rearrested in the wake of the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens by a Hamas cell in the West Bank.

Haaretz reports that Syrian President Assad is preparing to take over the Syrian Golan, adding that Israel will decide whether to intervene. Kan Radio News reports that Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman spoke yesterday with US Secretary of Defense Mattis with the latter stressing Washington’s concern about an escalation in southern Syria. Mattis said that the situation in Syria is currently the most complex security challenge. In Maariv, Tal Lev Ram writes that the attack carried out yesterday in the international airport in Damascus and which was ascribed to Israel, serves as a brief reminder that the situation in the north is far from being calm and quiet. He adds that the IDF’s assessment is that President Bashar Assad wants to conquer the areas that abut the Golan Heights border with such a military operation likely to result in Syrian army troops entering the buffer zone with Israel, which would be a gross violation of the armistice agreement between Syria and Israel.

Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Times of Israel report that the Israel Prize is being given to the Tunnel Discovery Project that helps identify terrorist tunnels from Gaza.

Yediot Ahronoth reports that following a call by consumers to boycott the Barkan winery, and the Economy Ministry’s announcement that it was severing relations with it the winery, it was announced last night that the Ethiopian Israeli workers who had been removed from their jobs in the production of the wine because of “doubts about their Jewishness” would be restored to their original jobs.

The Jerusalem Post reports that senior national religious rabbis have called for tighter Knesset oversight on arms sales to foreign countries.