BBC News, The Guardian, The Times, the Financial Times, The Telegraph, the Associated Press and Reuters report that a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey has come into effect in the north west Syrian province of Idlib, after the deal was signed in Moscow on Thursday by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Guardian reports that the Turkish military killed 21 Syrian troops after two Turkish soldiers were earlier killed in Idlib, the state news agency reported on Friday, citing the Turkish defence ministry. Reuters and the Associated Press report that Syria’s Idlib region was quiet but tense on Friday with a lull in Russian and Syrian air raids that have pounded the last opposition-held enclave in Syria, residents and opposition sources said, after the ceasefire was declared.

The Telegraph reports that Germany’s parliament has rejected a proposal to take in 5,000 child refugees from Greece, as Angela Merkel’s CDU party warned a European solution that involved Turkey was the only way out of the crisis. Reuters reports that Greece has repulsed nearly 35,000 migrants trying to cross onto its territory illegally since Turkey opened its border nearly a week ago, government sources said on Thursday, as it prepares to deport hundreds of others who made it through.

The Times and Reuters report that The International Criminal Court (ICC) will open an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan, including those committed by US forces, setting off a potentially explosive showdown with the Trump administration.

The Guardian, The Independent and the Financial Times report that UK ministers, police and prosecutors are under pressure to bring Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, to justice after a UK judge ruled that he orchestrated the abduction of two of daughters – one from the streets of Cambridge.

Reuters reports that British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, criticised by some at home for British arms sales to Saudi Arabia, said on Thursday he was hopeful for a de-escalation this year in Yemen’s five-year-old civil war, in which London backs the Saudi-led coalition.

BBC News reports that Iraq’s health ministry has announced its first two confirmed deaths related to the new coronavirus disease, as a woman with a compromised immune system and a 65-year-old man who suffered from chronic diseases died on Wednesday in the capital, Baghdad.

BBC News reports that Iran is limiting travel between its major cities as it tries to halt the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed at least 107 people there. The country has already shut schools until April, and Health Minister Saeed Namaki said people should not use the break as an opportunity to travel.

The Guardian reports that OPEC is on the verge of making its deepest oil production cuts since the global financial crisis amid warnings that the coronavirus may wipe out the world’s oil demand growth this year.

Reuters reports that at least 10 people, including six children, were killed on Thursday when a bakery fire swept through a crowded market in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, health officials said.

In the New Statesman, Alona Ferber says Israeli voters rewarded Netanyahu’s divisive campaign tactics at Monday’s election, yet a ‘constitutional crisis now looms’ despite the fact that Netanyahu’s right wing religious bloc is three seats shy of a majority.

At the Associated Press, Aron Heller argues that a surge in Arab voter turnout was key to depriving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nationalist allies of a parliamentary majority in this week’s Israeli election

In The Guardian, Yair Wallach argues that Palestinian voters are ‘the new power brokers in Israel’, much to Netanyahu’s chagrin, as Palestinians flocked to the Joint List party and helped deny the prime minister a Knesset majority.

The Economist argues that Russia has wanted to reach a ceasefire in Idlib as Turkey has pounded the Syrian army, demonstrating that ‘two tetchy autocrats’ – Putin and Erdogan – have created a ‘big bloody mess’ in Syria.

In The Guardian, Elif Shafak writes that the humanitarian crisis in Turkey has shone a light on Europe’s failures, as the desperate refugees trapped on its border reflect a broken bilateral relationship between Ankara and Brussels.

In the New Statesmen, Kaya Genc says that as the Syria refugee crisis has begun to return the EU still appears heartless, whilst the scenes at the Greek border are ‘holding a mirror to our shared loss of empathy and humanity’.

In The Guardian, Bethan McKernan and Hussein Akoush write that Syrian refugees in Turkey are ‘still caught in the Idlib crossfire’, as refugees and businesses have been scapegoated over Turkey’s economic woes and war casualties.

In The Independent, Kim Sengupta writes that coronavirus has hit Iran’s ‘resistance economy’ set up to combat US sanctions, forcing Iranians to fear being cut off from the outside world if travel to the country drops.

All the Israeli and Palestinian media report the first cases of coronavirus in the Palestinian Territories. Seven Palestinian employees at a hotel near Bethlehem, in the West Bank, have been diagnosed with the virus. In response the Palestinian Authority (PA) declared a state of emergency, shutting all schools, universities, and other public institutions and urging people not to travel between districts in the West Bank. The IDF, in consultation with the PA, imposed a full closure of Bethlehem – with no Israeli or Palestinian traffic allowed in or out. It’s believed to be the first such closure around a Palestinian city since the Second Intifada. The IDF has been working with Palestinian Authority health officials to diagnose and control the spread of the virus, running joint training courses between Israeli and Palestinian medical teams and transferring testing kits to the PA.

Yediot Aharonot reports that Israeli airstrikes late on Wednesday night in Syria could have targeted chemical weapons production facilities. Earlier this week strikes were carried out by what Syrian authorities called “hostile elements” against bases in Homs and Quneitra. The report gives no backing to the allegation apart from describing it as an “unusual air strike,” but adds that “if this is the case then it constitutes a significant blow” against the Syrian regime.

Channel 13 news reports a private meeting between US presidential advisor Jared Kushner and US Senators to discuss the Trump Administration’s Israel-Palestinian plan. According to the report, Kushner said the Administration would move forward with its plan “within months,” including green lighting Israel applying sovereignty to West Bank settlements, if the Palestinians did not return to the negotiating table. Kushner also reportedly said that the joint US-Israel mapping committee for the settlements could take a few more months to finish its work.