The BBC Radio 4 Today Programme presented the programme live from Gaza this morning. They interviewed young Israelis living in communities along the border with Gaza and interviewed five young Palestinians about their lives in the Strip. World Bank and UN officials based in Gaza analysed the economic situation and the need for more aid to fund basic infrastructure.

The Financial Times, BBC and the Guardian report that Australia has formally recognised West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Financial Times reports that despite the announcement, the Australian Government will not open an embassy in the contested city until a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians is achieved. The announcement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison includes opening a defence and trade office in Jerusalem and follows in the footsteps of US President Donald Trump, who moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv but stopped short of recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “Australia now recognises West Jerusalem, being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel,” Morrison said in a speech to the Sydney Institute at the weekend. He adding that Canberra looked “forward to moving our embassy to West Jerusalem when practical, in support of and after final status determination.” Morrison said that Australia “resolved to acknowledge the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a future state with its capital in East Jerusalem”. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, called the Australian decision irresponsible, and said Morrison’s administration had done nothing to advance the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Guardian reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained silent on Canberra’s move at the weekly Cabinet meeting, but a minister close to him said it was a mistake to contradict Israeli control over the whole city. Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s minister for regional cooperation and a Netanyahu confidant in the right-wing Likud party, was more openly critical. “To our regret, within this positive news they made a mistake,” he told reporters outside the Cabinet room. He referred to Canberra as a “deep and intimate friend of many years’ standing,” but added: “There is no division between the east of the city and west of the city. Jerusalem is one whole, united. Israel’s control over it is eternal. Our sovereignty will not be partitioned nor undermined. And we hope Australia will soon find the way to fix the mistake it made.”

The Times reports that Turkey has deployed tanks and commandos along its border with Syria and ordered 14,000 Syrian rebels working with its army to prepare for an offensive against Kurdish forces allied to American special forces. President Recip Tayyip Erdogan said that the Western-supported forces fighting ISIS in the north of Syria were also terrorists who threatened Turkey’s national security. “We are burying the terrorists in the trenches that they dig and will continue to do so,” he said. The US has urged Erdogan to back off, threatening dire consequences to the rebels, Free Syrian Army groups formerly supported by the West, if they take part in any assault. In a reference to the major powers involved, a US official warned the groups that they should “not venture where elephants are fighting”, Major Youssef Hammoud, a rebel commander, told the newspaper.

The Telegraph, BBC, Independent and the Guardian report that, on Sunday, Saudi Arabia rejected a US Senate resolution to end American military support for the Riyadh-led operation in Yemen, and another holding its Crown Prince responsible for the murder of critic Jamal Khashoggi. The Telegraph  reports that the resolutions were rejected “as interference”. “The kingdom condemns the latest position of the US Senate that was based on unsubstantiated allegations and rejects the blatant interference in its internal affairs,” the foreign ministry said in a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency. The Saudi ministry warned that the Kingdom would not tolerate any “disrespect” of its rulers. “This position by the US Senate sends the wrong messages to all those who want to cause a rift in Saudi-US relationship,” the ministry said. “The kingdom hopes that it is not drawn into domestic political debates in the US to avoid any… significant negative impact on this important strategic relationship.”

Reuters reports that on Saturday, according to witnesses and the military, Israeli forces demolished the family home of a Palestinian charged with killing an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank. Israel says Islam Abu Humaid, aged 32, threw a 40 pound (18 kg) marble plate from a rooftop, killing an Israeli special forces sergeant, Ronen Lubarsky, 20, during a May arrest raid in El Amari refugee camp in the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Israeli forces arrived at the El Amari camp before dawn on Saturday, sealed off the four-storey Abu Humaid house and destroyed it, the military said in a statement.

The BBC reports that according to officials, an “immediate ceasefire” in Yemen’s war will actually come into effect on 18 December, after the initial deal was followed by violence. The warring sides agreed to end fighting in the vital port city of Hudaydah last Thursday. A day later, air strikes and fierce clashes were reported between pro-government forces and Houthi rebels. UN and Yemeni officials say the ceasefire delay is needed so that orders can be passed to ground troops. The UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, has urged both sides to respect the obligations and spirit of the agreement, which followed UN-brokered talks in Sweden.

The Independent reports that a bomb blast in a northern Syrian town held by Turkish-backed opposition forces killed at least eight people on Sunday, activists said, the latest in a series of attacks to hit areas along the border where Turkey has troops. The spike in attacks follows Turkish threats to expand its offensive against US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces to the east, where US troops are based.

Reuters reports that Turkish warplanes struck Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq on Saturday, the military said, ignoring protests from Baghdad which called Turkey’s repeated air strikes a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and endangering civilians. Iraqi authorities summoned Turkey’s ambassador in Baghdad on Friday after Ankara said it killed eight militants from the outlawed PKK. Turkey said it would continue attacking the PKK as long as it sought refuge in Iraq.

The Telegraph reports that Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is looking increasingly unstable after far-Right politicians threatened to withdraw their support unless the Prime Minister agrees to new security measures amid a spate of violence in the occupied West Bank. Two hard-line MPs from the Jewish Home party have warned the Prime Minister they will topple his government unless he increases security barriers on West Bank roads and passes controversial legislation to benefit settlements. “If [Palestinians] continue to move about freely on the roads and to slaughter us like ducks, there is no justification for this government’s continuing to exist for even a single additional day,” said Bezalel Smotrich, one of the politicians. He warned that if Netanyahu did not stop Palestinians from travelling on Israeli-built roads in the West Bank, “the blood of the murder victims is on his hands personally”.

Reuters reports that retired Israeli army general, Israel Ziv, has been hit by US sanctions for his alleged involvement in the South Sudan conflict. He denied the charges on Sunday, saying they were based on false information and that he was available for investigation by the Trump administration. On Friday, the US Treasury slapped sanctions on Ziv and three firms he controls, accusing him of using an agricultural consultancy as cover for weapons sales worth $150m (£119.2m) to the Juba government while also arming the opposition.“He (Ziv) has also reportedly planned to organise attacks by mercenaries on South Sudanese oil fields and infrastructure, in an effort to create a problem that only his company and affiliates could solve,” a US Treasury statement said.

In the Israeli media Yediot Ahronot and Maariv report that nine Cabinet ministers attended an anti-government demonstration outside the Prime Minister’s Office before heading indoors to attend the weekly Cabinet meeting. The demonstration, which was organised by settler leaders, was highly critical of the Government’s security and settlement policies in the West Bank in the aftermath of shooting attacks last week. Maariv describes a heated exchange in the Cabinet meeting. Education Minister Naftali Bennett is quoted saying: “We’ve lost our deterrence. The IDF’s hands need to be freed from the shackles of fake law and fake morality. Israelis are getting killed because the terrorists have stopped being afraid.”  Prime Minister Netanyahu retorted: “This is a foolish political gambit. There have been a lot of defence ministers and prime ministers in the past. We heard your ultimatum.” Bennett replied: “If only you’d use the same force that you use against us against the enemy. The terror attack in Beit El didn’t happen because of the High Court of Justice but because the IDF is shackled, through no fault of its own, by legalism.” Transport Minister Yisrael Katz sided with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and said: “The prime minister can hold the defence portfolio and serve simultaneously as prime minister, and he is doing that excellently. Ayelet Shaked isn’t doing enough on the issue of house demolitions.” Shaked replied: “Stop your prattling. You just want to be foreign minister.” The Jewish Home ministers refused to vote in favour of appointing Netanyahu as defence minister, and called for Bennett to be appointed instead.

Yediot Ahronot reports: “A new record has been set: even the opposition is less opposed to the government than its own ministers. This begs the question: If the members of the government are opposed to its policies — why do they stay in it? Okay, we weren’t born yesterday. How many ministers have we ever seen who were prepared to give up their seats, and in an election year to boot? Besides, this is the greatest paradox of the Netanyahu government towards the end of its term. On the one hand, the members of the government are trying to preserve it, since no one is willing to be the one who gets blamed for toppling a right-wing government. On the other, elections are looming, the party primaries are lurking right around the corner, and the ministers’ principal focus is on their own voters. That is why the ministers currently need to show great skill in walking a tightrope: the ability to manoeuvre between voters who want an apt right wing reaction, and the fear that their apt reaction will pull the rug out from beneath the feet of the right-wing government, and then they’ll be blamed for bringing it down.” Israel Hayom reports: “The latest clash in the cabinet between the Likud and Jewish Home ministers is the first indication that Bennett has not shelved his dream of being appointed defence minister. In the last round, the Jewish Home chairperson failed miserably and was forced to withdraw his demand to be appointed defence minister. That was no ordinary failure, it was true humiliation … If there is one thing that Bennett learned from that round, it was that his voters are not with him when he sets his sights too high.”

Haaretz reports that Israeli security forces discovered a Kalashnikov assault rifle on Sunday that was used in a shooting attack near the West Bank settlement of Givat Assaf, in which two Israeli soldiers were killed. Bullets and a second gun, which was stolen from a soldier wounded in the attack, were also found.

Maariv reports that the Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill to deport the families of terrorists from their homes to somewhere else in the West Bank. The committee also approved a bill to retro-actively legalise houses in 70 outposts and neighbourhoods that were built in settlements in the last 20 years. The two bills were approved despite the attorney general’s strenuous objections.

Israel Hayom reports that Georgia will begin a process to transfer their embassy to Jerusalem. This was agreed at a meeting between Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely and Georgia’s new president, Salome Zurabishvili.  Hotovely, who was the guest of honour at the swearing-in ceremony for the president on behalf of the Israeli delegation, met with President Zurabishvili. He said: “In the light of our deep friendship, we want to see Georgia move its embassy to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.”

The Jerusalem Post report that the defence ministry announced NIS 100 million (£21 million) investment in an innovative research fund for quantum computing. Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “I welcome the establishment of the innovative research fund, which will continue to place Israel at the top of global technology and research. From the cyber power to the quantum superpower, we will continue to lead significant breakthroughs for the State of Israel.”  The paper explains: “A quantum computer works with particles that can be in superposition – two or more quantum states added together to become another one. Rather than representing bits, such particles would represent qubits, which can take on the value 0, or 1, or both simultaneously. This allows these computers to solve problems that current computers cannot, and could have important defence applications, such as allowing the military to break complex encryption and cryptographic codes used to protect military secrets.”