BBC News Online, the Times and the Guardian report that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi secured 97 per cent of the votes in Egypt’s election, raising concerns that the former military chief will seek to abolish term limits and extend a brutal crackdown on dissent. The head of the election authority, which is supposedly independent, hailed al-Sisi’s sweeping victory as a glorious moment for the country. He won the same per cent of the vote in the last election in 2014. However, turnout, was 41 per cent, six per cent lower. Electoral officials also said 7 per cent of the 24m ballots cast were spoiled. Many saw the outcome as a foregone conclusion, with al-Sisi’s sole opponent a little-known figure who had previously supported his re-election. Twice as many people ended up spoiling their ballots than voting for Moussa Mostafa Moussa, leader of the al-Ghad party, according to the official results.

BBC News Online, the Independent, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Daily Mail via AP and the Daily Mail via AFP report that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suspended a deal with the UN to give residency to thousands of African migrants in exchange for Western nations resettling the same number. Hours after announcing the deal, he put the plan on hold, saying he would speak with residents of south Tel Aviv, where many of the migrants live.

BBC News Online and the Times report that the Syrian government appears poised to regain control of the last rebel-held town in the eastern Ghouta region close to the capital Damascus. State media said the first members of the Jaysh al-Islam rebel group had left Douma on buses and were due travel to the northern town of Jarablus. The government’s key ally Russia announced on Sunday that Jaysh al-Islam had agreed to an evacuation. The Assad regime has started dropping leaflets demanding the surrender of the last rebel hold-outs in southern and central Syria, as attention shifts from Damascus to new fronts in the multi-sided civil war.

The Independent, the Guardian, ITV News, and the Daily Mail report on the violence that took place in Gaza this weekend. Israel’s Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman has rejected United Nations and European Union calls for an investigation into the deaths of 18 Palestinians by the Israel Defence Force (IDF). The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, and the EU’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, called for independent inquiries into the bloodshed. Pope Francis, meanwhile, called for peace in the “Holy Land” in his annual Easter Sunday address, saying the Israeli-Gaza border conflict “does not spare the defenceless”. In the Guardian, Tareq Baconi writes that: “As the funerals that took place in Gaza this weekend attest, protest against Israeli repression often ends in tragedy. While it is difficult to advocate further popular resistance in the context of an inevitably violent response, Palestinians should nonetheless reflect on the power of civil disobedience in asserting their inviolable individual and collective rights.”

The Times, the Sun, the Telegraph,  the Spectator, the Daily Mail and BBC News Online report that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised for attending an event organised by Jewdas – a left-wing Jewish group critical of more mainstream Jewish organisations. It comes hours after Corbyn promised “watertight” investigations into claims of anti-Semitism within his party. One Labour MP called his actions “irresponsible and dangerous”. On Monday, Momentum, the movement backing Mr Corbyn, said the party had “failed” on antisemitism. Jewdas has accused the Jewish Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council and Jewish Labour Movement of “playing a dangerous game” and previously dismissed anti-Semitism allegations as right-wing smears. A spokesman for the Labour leader confirmed Mr Corbyn had attended the Seder event, a ritual service held on Passover, in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the party. BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme aired an interview with Deputy Editor of the News Statesman Helen Lewis and Jewish Leadership Council Chair Jonathan Goldstein on Corbyn’s attendance of the Jewdas event.

The Daily Mail reports that ultra-Orthodox Jews congregated at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Thursday for a mass priestly blessing on Passover – a tradition of recent decades echoing a pilgrimage from antiquity. Jewish priests wearing Talit prayer shawls took part in the Cohanim prayer in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Daily Mail via AFP reports that the Crown Prince and de facto leader of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman said on Monday that Israel has a “right” to a homeland, a notable shift in the Kingdom’s position. Saudi Arabia and Israel still have no formal diplomatic relations, but behind the scenes, improvements in their ties have accelerated in recent years. Both countries see Iran as their biggest outside threat and the United States as their key ally, and both see danger from armed Islamist extremists. Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians has long proved an obstacle to a full rapprochement, however, as Riyadh still supports their claim to sovereignty. But now Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, speaking to the editor-in-chief of US news magazine The Atlantic, appeared to put the rival land claims on an equal footing. The prince was asked by Jeffrey Goldberg whether the “Jewish people have a right to a nation-state in at least part of their ancestral homeland?” He remarked: “I believe that each people, anywhere, has a right to live in their peaceful nation. The prince, who is on a three-week US tour, added “I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land.” “But we have to have a peace agreement to assure the stability for everyone and to have normal relations.”

The Israeli media is dominated by the news of the deal on asylum seekers that was announced yesterday before being put on hold.

Ha’aretz reports that “Netanyahu announces cancelation of expulsion and retracts because of right wing criticism; Ma’ariv runs with “Netanyahu: I’m suspending agreement and reexamining it” while Yediot Ahronoth says “Netanyahu Folds” and runs two opinion pieces critical of the Prime Minister. Israel Hayom says: “The Prime Minister’s Zigzag: The Agreement on Infiltrators to be Suspended” The Times of Israel reports that “Outed by Netanyahu as ‘third-party country,’ Rwanda denies migrant agreement”. It also argues that a demand by Israel’s High Court of Justice that the resettlement program in Rwanda be monitored by Israeli inspectors ultimately scuttled the plan, as the condition was rejected by Rwanda. The Jerusalem Post chooses the headline “Netanyahu shows he’s not in charge, caves to coalition partners on migrants”.

Writing in Yediot Ahronoth, Sima Kadmon argues that “last night’s incident…should train a warning light on the Prime Minister’s conduct” and that “the dramatic zigzag in Netanyahu’s decision is certainly a cause for concern. First, because it is clear to everyone that after the understandings reached with the UN, Israel cannot backtrack and demand the expulsion of the refugees to a third country once again. By the fact of its publication, the new plan has already been launched. How will Israel look now and how will it explain the change in its position? But what should trouble us more is the turnabout in Netanyahu’s decision, and the retraction within a few hours of things he said at the press conference.”

Also in Yediot Ahronoth, Ben Dror Yemini says that “the public debate on the subject of the asylum seekers has suffered every possible agony. This is mainly because of the government’s lack of policy on the subject of migration. Huge sums were invested in building detention facilities, but they were closed after a short time. The only common denominator that can be found among all the decisions of the last few years is confusion, doing without thinking, a lack of planning, and automatically capitulating to public pressure.”

In other news, Maariv reports that Gaza is preparing for what it terms “Tyre Demonstration” while Haaretz reports that a film allegedly shows a demonstrator shot in the head dozens of metres from the border fence.

Haaretz reports that a Palestinian man was shot and severely injured by an Israeli guard at a West Bank checkpoint.

Kan Radio News Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman said that the Israelis, like the Palestinians, had a right to their own land. In an interview to The Atlantic, bin Salman said that Saudi Arabia and Israel shared many interests, which could materialise if there were peace. The Times of Israel also covers this story, writing that the Saudi crown prince recognises Israel’s right to exist and talks up future ties.

Haaretz reports that with the removal of rebels from the eastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus, Idlib remains the rebels’ last stronghold in Syria.