The continuing bloody Syrian conflict continues to make the headlines this morning. The Evening Standard says that the United Nations (UN) General Assembly is set to vote today in favour of an Arab-backed resolution calling for a political solution in Syria and condemning President Assad’s use of heavy weaponry. Meanwhile, the Guardian online reports that an unnamed Foreign Office official with special responsibility towards policy on Syria told a meeting at the House of Commons that supplying arms to Syrian opposition groups is a pre-requisite to their agreement to enter talks with  the Assad regime. The online edition of the Telegraph says that the UK and France are pushing for the UN Security Council to designate the Islamist opposition group in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra as an al-Qaeda affiliate, thereby subjecting it to international sanctions. Writing in the Guardian, former UK special envoy to Iraq, Jeremy Greenstock writes that a new kind of international diplomacy is needed to prevent a bloody power vacuum in Syria.

The Daily Mirror and Independent report on clashes which broke out yesterday in the West Bank and East Jerusalem between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protestors marking Nakba Day (“Catastrophe Day”), a Palestinian commemoration of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, which happened amidst a war during which many Palestinians fled their homes. The Guardian online reports on an initiative by descendants of the village of Iqrit, situated in northern Israel, who are applying to build new homes in the village, from which their ancestors were evicted during the war in 1948. The applicants are Israeli citizens living in other areas in the north of the country and the report says that their initiative has received support from Israeli politicians on both the right and left.

The Independent reports that Labour Party leader Ed Miliband was ranked twentieth in the Jerusalem Post’s annual list of the world’s most influential Jews.

In the Israeli media, the front-page headlines in Haaretz, Makor Rishon and Israel Hayom focus on reports of an unprecedented warning issued by Israel to Syria’s President Assad, that any retaliation to air strikes against his country would precipitate a heavy Israeli response which will bring down his regime. The story was first reported last night by Channel Two. Maariv discusses whether the fall of Assad would be good for Israel or not. The same publication also reports on the aftermath of a meeting earlier this week between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, during which Israel’s Prime Minister apparently warned Putin that Russian arms sales to Assad could trigger regional war.

Meanwhile, the top headline in Yediot Ahronot focuses on an OECD poverty report which places Israel as having the highest poverty rate in the group of the world’s thirty three most developed countries. Yediot Ahronot’s headline says that Israel has a “Higher poverty rate than Mexico” while this is also a prominent item in Maariv and Haaretz.

Yesterday’s clashes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem between Palestinian protestors marking Naqba Day and Israeli security forces is reported notably in Makor Rishon but is relegated to page twelve of Yediot Ahronot.