This morning the Guardian, Times, Independent, Telegraph, Financial Times, Metro, Independent i and Evening Standard cover comments made at a security conference yesterday by top IDF intelligence analyst Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, who said that Syrian President Assad’s forces used sarin gas against civilians last month. Brun also appeared to criticise the international community for failing to take any subsequent action, despite repeated warnings to Assad by Western leaders against deploying chemical weapons. All articles note that US Secretary of State John Kerry said that he had discussed the issue with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that Kerry also suggested NATO develop a plan to respond to such incidents. The online edition of the Guardian also includes a feature on the impact of huge numbers of Syrian refugees crossing into neighbouring Jordan.

The Independent online reports on comments made yesterday by Israel’s former Head of Military Intelligence Amos Yadlin, who said that Iran is set to cross Israel’s ‘red line’ on nuclear development in the coming months, setting the two countries “toward a collision course” by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the Telegraph online covers the arrest outside the Israeli embassy in Nepal of an Iranian national who was carrying a fake Israeli passport and is suspected of planning a terrorist attack.

The Guardian and the online edition of the Independent report that high profile Palestinian prisoner, Samer Issawi, who had originally been convicted of terrorist offences, has ended a 250-day hunger strike after a deal was agreed with Israeli authorities under which he will serve a further eight months of his prison sentence. Issawi’s hunger strike had become a rallying point on the Palestinian street.

Meanwhile, the Independent and its sister publication Independent i both cover the agreement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a compromise plan suggested by Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky over prayer arrangements at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. A campaign for women to hold their own prayer services at the Western Wall, a departure from orthodox Jewish tradition, has intensified over recent months, with current regulations banning such practice. Sharansky’s plan proposes the creation of a mixed prayer area at the site.

The top story in this morning’s Israel Hayom focuses on Brig. Gen. Itai Brun’s accusation yesterday that Syrian President Assad has used sarin gas on Syrian civilians. The headlines in both Israel Hayom and a similar story in Maariv claim that Brun’s comments caused ‘embarrassment’ in the White House after US President Barack Obama had previously said that Assad’s use of chemical weapons would constitute a ‘red line’ being crossed. Yediot Ahronot refers to Brun’s Syria assessment as a ‘disagreement’ between Israel and the United States. Meanwhile, both Haaretz and Makor Rishon highlight Amos Yadlin’s prediction that Iran is close to acquiring nuclear weapons and that conflict between Israel and Iran may happen during the coming months. There is widespread commentary on both Brun’s and Yadlin’s comments, with Shimon Shiffer arguing in Yediot Ahronot that decisions over Syrian and Iranian ‘red lines’ ‘will ultimately be made in the Oval Office, not in Jerusalem.’

Meanwhile, there is also significant coverage of Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s speech at a conference yesterday in which he outlined his budgetary plans. Haaretz highlights his intention to cut funds to ultra-Orthodox religious seminaries that do not adhere to a core curriculum. Yediot Ahronot and Maariv both focus on the potential cost of Lapid’s proposed cuts on the average Israeli family.