Most dailies this morning report that Hezbollah has played probably its most significant role yet in the Syrian conflict, helping President Assad’s forces launch a major offensive to wrest control of the town of Qusair from opposition groups seeking the downfall of the Assad regime. Reports in the Guardian, Times, Telegraph, Independent, Financial Times, Metro and Independent i highlight the role played by Hezbollah, providing significant ground forces in the offensive which is reported to have killed at least thirty people. Qusair is situated six miles from the Lebanese border and is strategically important for Assad as it is an important link between the capital Damascus and the third largest city Homs. The Guardian online reports that the European Union’s decision to lift Syrian oil sanctions has led to a scramble among opposition groups, including Islamist forces, for control of Syria’s oil fields and pipelines.

The Telegraph online covers comments made by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told his cabinet yesterday that the government would act “with determination” to ensure that advanced weapons are not transferred from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel is thought to have been responsible for air strikes earlier this month, which targeted a military facility near Damascus, where sophisticated Iranian weaponry was being stored prior to transfer to Hezbollah.

The Times includes a small item which notes that Israel’s High Court of Justice has ruled to return land in the West Bank on which the settlement of Homesh had been situated, to its original Palestinian owners. Homesh was evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel’s decision to disengage from the Gaza Strip and sections of the West Bank.

Meanwhile, the Times, Financial Times, Independent i and the online edition of the Telegraph report that Iran has hanged two men convicted of spying for Israel and the United States. Iranian authorities did not clarify when the two men were arrested or when their trials took place. All reports note suggestions that the men were merely opposition activists and that the hangings may be an act of intimidation by the Tehran regime ahead of a presidential election on 14 June.

In the Israeli media, the front page headline in Maariv, Israel Hayom and Makor Rishon is devoted to the publication of a state report which concluded that Mohammed al-Dura, the twelve-year-old Palestinian boy who became the icon of the Second Intifada, was not killed by Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip and was possibly not killed at all. However, writing in Maariv, Ben-Dror Yemini criticises the Israeli government for having failed to act swiftly enough to the incident in question which occurred in 2000. As a result Yemini says, the damage of the al-Dura lie was allowed to develop. The report’s release is also covered prominently in Yediot Ahronot and Haaretz.

Haaretz and Makor Rishon also focus on changes to Israel’s religious services, which Naftali Bennett, whose Jewish Home party operates the ministry responsible for such activities, says will be “revolutionary.” The proposed changes are set to give Israeli citizens greater choice in where to register their marriage, while Haaretz says that the transformation will ease the process for Jewish converts.

Bennett also makes the headlines in Yediot Ahronot, saying that big changes will be made in the operation of Israel’s ports, which are widely perceived to be operated at extravagant expense to the taxpayer. Makor Rishon also covers this story.