The BBC, Independent and the Telegraph report the reaction of the Saudi-led coalition to a new UN report which said some of its attacks may amount to war crimes. The coalition says it has co-operated in an “open and transparent manner” with the UN group since they began working in December 2017. It says “false allegations” have been made against it based on “misleading reports by some non-governmental organisations”. The BBC article notes that the coalition, which intervened when Houthi rebels seized control of much of the west of the country and forced President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee abroad, has received logistical and intelligence support from the US, UK and France.

The Daily Mail reports on internet sensation Mia Aflalo, a five-year-old girl from Tel Aviv who is taking the internet by storm due to her “long luscious locks,” racking up almost 50,000 followers on Instagram. Israeli hair stylist Sagi Dahari reportedly helped to make Mia a rising star and her images have even been featured on the British Vogue website.

The Guardian reports on criticism by agencies working in the West Bank and Gaza of US aid cuts. According to the report, the Catholic Relief Services said the withholding of this year’s US funding for its projects had seen the number of Palestinians it could support in Gaza – largely in food aid and employment assistance – drop from 150,000 to just 200 since January, forcing it to lay off most of its programme staff. Other agencies hit by the cuts include Mercy Corps and International Medical Corps (IMC), who jointly provide a USAID-funded medical programme in Gaza.

The Times says that Pro-Corbyn activists will picket a meeting of Labour’s ruling body next week in an attempt to stop the “pro-Israel lobby” forcing a climb-down on antisemitism. Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) is expected to try to end weeks of bitter rows by adopting the full definition and examples of antisemitism in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) code. The report claims that Members of the NEC will be greeted on Tuesday by a “mass lobby” organised by the Camden branch of Momentum, who said in a statement that Labour leader Jeremey Corbyn “has been under mounting pressure from right-wing Labour MPs, Zionist organisations and the mainstream media determined to remove our elected leader, to adopt all the examples in the IHRA definition”.

The BBC, Daily Mail and the Independent report that jailed British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been taken to hospital after suffering several panic attacks and low blood pressure, according to her husband. Last week Zaghari-Ratcliffe was reunited with her family during a three-day temporary release. Richard Ratcliffe said his wife has experienced a number of panic attacks during her imprisonment, but that they were becoming more frequent. He added that the head of the prison had been “worried enough to come down and see her” and was “very surprised” that she had not been allowed to extend her furlough.

The Telegraph’s Middle East correspondent Raf Sanchez reports on the Russian naval build-up in the Mediterranean ahead of an expected assault by the Syrian regime on the last major rebel stronghold in Syria. According to Russian media, at least 10 Russian warships and two submarines have been deployed, armed with long-range Kalibr missile which could be used to attack ground targets in Idlib. Sanchez says the naval build up may also be intended to deter the US and its allies from intervening if Assad’s forces use chemical weapons in the assault.

The Independent reports on the first interview with Israeli soldier Elor Azaria since he was released from prison after serving nine months of his 14-month manslaughter sentence. Azaria told the Hebrew-language daily newspaper Israel Hayom he had “no regrets” and if he could relive the shooting, “I would act exactly the same, because that’s how I needed to act”. The Independent says the case had sharply divided the Jewish nation, with the military and nationalist right at opposing ends of whether to prosecute Azaria.

The Daily Mail and the FT report comments from Iran’s Supreme Leader who threatened to scrap the JCPOA nuclear deal if guarantees about trade and oil sales are not met. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said there was “no hope” the European countries (France, the UK and Germany) could overcome the economic issues associated with saving the agreement. Khamenei also told President Hassan Rouhani and his cabinet to work “day and night” to solve the mounting economic problems in Iran, which include the collapse of the rial currency and surging unemployment. The Times notes that Iran has sent a clear message rejecting American calls for it to pull its troops out of Syria, signing a new defence co-operation pact with the Syrian regime.

In the Israeli media, Yediot Ahronot leads with an exclusive interview with Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman who reveals he has already chosen the next Chief of Staff to replace Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot who completes his term at the end of the year. The four candidates to succeed him are Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi; the former deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan; Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon; and Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir. When asked if the officers themselves already know, he replied “Not Yet”. Lieberman also praises the relationship with the current military chief, “One of my jobs is to ensure relations of trust with the top security echelon, and I’ve found Chief of Staff Eisenkot to be a genuine partner. Naturally, things sometimes creak once in a while, but everything gets handled in a very mature way, without any needless insults.” Lieberman goes on to say, “I looked for a person who would speak to me in terms of defeat and victory. In meetings with military men I hear too many terms, such as ‘political arena,’ and ‘legal ramifications.’ The most important value in my opinion is victory, not explanations.”  The next chief of staff will implement Lieberman’s plans to upgrade the IDF and to establish a surface-to-surface missile capability. “This isn’t a defensive array, but a new deterring and offensive array,” said Lieberman. Strengthening the ground forces is also on the Defence Minister’s agenda.

Haaretz reports that while Palestinian Authority President Abbas spoke on the phone with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi about the situation in Gaza, the White House published a statement thanking Sissi for his attempts to bring calm to Gaza – and slamming Abbas for his stance on the same issue. The paper quotes Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s special adviser on the peace process who said: “The Palestinian Authority cannot criticise from the sidelines. The Palestinian Authority should be part of the solution for the Palestinians of Gaza and Palestinians as a whole. If not, others will fill that void.” He added that “it’s time for the Palestinian Authority to lead the Palestinian people – all Palestinians – to a better future.” The paper also quotes US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who told members of the American Jewish Congress said he believed that there was little chance for a truce arrangement in Gaza because there was also little chance for [intra-Palestinian] reconciliation. Friedman said that rebuilding Gaza without the Palestinian Authority would be a tremendous prize for Hamas. This morning, Kan radio news, reports on comments by Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, who said that it was possible that a truce in the Gaza Strip would be achieved within two months’ time and that Egypt has said it is prepared to continue its efforts to reach a truce even if attempts at [intra-Palestinian] reconciliation are unsuccessful. Sinwar added that no conclusive text to an agreement had been drafted and that all the reports on the matter were strictly ideas and proposals. Sinwar said further that there had been talks about a prisoner exchange. Sinwar is also reported to have boasted at a meeting in Gaza that Hamas could make the sirens in the greater Tel Aviv area blare for six months and now it would take five minutes to fire the number of missiles that it fired in 51 days during Operation Protective Edge. He said the number of tunnels in the Gaza Strip had doubled since Operation Protective Edge and that missile accuracy had improved.

Maariv’s top story notes Israel is still playing an active role imposing economic sanctions on Iran. Yesterday Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin agreed to set up a joint task force to step up enforcement of economic sanctions on Iran in the high-tech sector. “The sanctions on Iran have contributed to lifting the threat to the security of Israel and the entire free world,” Kahlon said yesterday during his visit to Washington.

Yediot Ahronot and Maariv cover the ceremony yesterday to rename the Negev Nuclear Research Centre after the late Shimon Peres. The papers quotes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said: “I am pleased to repay a debt of honour to Shimon Peres today, Shimon’s work spanned many years and was widely praised, and it extends to this special place too. The State of Israel is a regional powerhouse, and a world power in certain areas. Shimon Peres made a great and important contribution to Israel’s security. He will be credited with guaranteeing deterrence and the ability to defend ourselves from existential threats for generations. Shimon strove for peace, but he knew that true peace can only be achieved if we keep a firm grip on defensive arms. This Centre, which he always considered the apple of his eye, now bears his name with pride.”   The Prime Minister’s speech included a warning for Iran, “We are taking action to prevent Iran from militarily entrenching itself in Syria. We will not give up that goal, just as we did not give up the effort to have the bad nuclear agreement with Iran nullified, a goal that was perceived as impossible when I first put it on the international agenda a few years ago. “We will keep up the pressure on the dangerous and radical regime in Iran. Just yesterday we saw the fruits of this pressure in the remarks of the Iranian president, who said that much of the Iranian people had lost faith in Iran’s future and power because of the renewed economic sanctions.”

Israel Hayom has published an interview with Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier convicted of killing an incapacitated Palestinian assailant in Hebron in 2016.  He said he has no remorse and would do it again, “I have no doubt. Bring me back to those same seconds of the incident in Hebron – I would have done exactly the same thing. Because that is what needed to be done… I have no remorse. I am completely at peace with myself. I acted as needed. I went with my own [inner] truth. I acted in the most proper way possible and what happened afterwards [his trial and conviction] should not have happened.”