The online editions of the Guardian and Financial Times report that the Knesset yesterday advanced the controversial Regulation Bill, which passed a preliminary reading by 60 votes to 49. The legislation, which is spearheaded by Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party, was originally designed to retroactively legalise the Amona outpost in the West Bank, after the High Court ruled it had been built illegally on private Palestinian land and ordered its evacuation. The latest draft legislation  represents a compromise between coalition partners, under which Amona will still have to be evacuated, but similar outposts in the West Bank could be retroactively legalised. The Guardian online notes not only that the bill requires to pass three additional Knesset votes in order to become law, but it “appears inevitable that it will be challenged in court”.

On Syria, the Financial Times reports that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are pushing deeper into the rebel-held area of eastern Aleppo. The Telegraph online covers claims that regime forces are arresting and forcibly conscripting civilians who are fleeing the fighting in eastern Aleppo.

The i reports that Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif has met his Chinese counterpart in Beijing, where both said that the nuclear deal agreed last year between Iran and the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) must not be violated. In a message which the report says appears to have been directed at US President-elect Donald Trump, Zarif said that countries “have the obligation to fully implement” the accord.

The Guardian reports that an Israeli marine biologist has concluded that a shellfish which historically was the source of the dye to fashion imperial purple for some of the ancient world’s greatest leaders, has disappeared from the eastern Mediterranean due to warming waters.

In the Israeli media, the top story in Yediot Ahronot, Maariv and Israel Hayom is the preliminary vote yesterday in the Knesset in favour of the Regulation Bill. The report in Yediot Ahronot emphasises that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit remains opposed to the legislation, even under its new format, and regards it as unconstitutional. Israel Radio news reports that UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov said that the bill could have far-reaching legal consequences and reduce the chances for peace.

Writing in Maariv about the Regulation Bill and the political manoeuvring surrounding it, Yehiel Gutman says: “The manipulations and legal acrobatics that have been carried out over the past days by the Knesset and other government authorities, while bending the law and creating constitutional monstrosities that are incompatible with state and international law—‎are frightening and alarming.”

The top story in Haaretz, which is also prominently covered in Yediot Ahronot, Maariv and Israel Hayom, is yesterday’s sentencing of former business tycoon Nochi Dankner to two years in prison. He was found guilty in July of stock manipulation and other related offences.

Israel Radio news reports that State Comptroller Yosef Shapira is expected to issue a special report this afternoon on preparations to defend the home front against missile and rocket attacks.