The Guardian, Independent and the online edition of the Telegraph all report the death yesterday of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a religious giant in Israel and mentor of both the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox Shas party and the wider Sephardi community. The 93-year-old’s passing triggered an outpouring of public grief and his funeral yesterday evening in Jerusalem was attended by in excess of half a million people, making it the largest funeral in Israel’s history. The Telegraph and the Guardian online includes an obituary of Rabbi Yosef, outlining his landmark religious rulings and his influential political decisions.

The online edition of the Guardian covers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at Bar Ilan University on Sunday evening in which he said that settlements are not the primary cause of the conflict, but that real peace will only be achieved when the Palestinians recognise Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. Meanwhile, the Guardian online also reports that ordinary Iranians have lampooned a reference made by Netanyahu in an interview on BBC Persian television last week, in which he appeared to suggest that everyday Iranians are prevented from wearing jeans.

The Guardian, Independent, Financial Times and Telegraph online cover the ongoing violence in Egypt which continued yesterday. Following the deaths of dozens in clashes between Egyptian security forces and supporters of ousted premier Mohammed Morsi on Sunday, Islamist gunmen killed six Egyptian soldiers yesterday near the Suez Canal and a rocket attack was launched in a Cairo suburb at a government facility, fuelling speculation that Islamist armed groups are expanding their activity beyond northern Sinai. The Telegraph online also covers yesterday’s events and highlights claims that Egyptian security forces are employing a ‘shoot to kill’ policy at demonstrations.

The Independent and the online edition of the Guardian both report comments made by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who both expressed satisfaction at the swift work of international experts who have begun dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile. However, the Independent says that the task to disarm such weapons remains huge especially as violence continues unabated in Syria. A separate piece in the online edition of the Independent says that the United Nations predicts that a further two million Syrians will flee the country and an additional two and a half million Syrians will be internally displaced during 2014.

The Guardian online reports that Israel’s foreign ministry released a statement condemning a Council of Europe resolution adopted last week which called on member states to more closely regulate circumcision, suggesting that traditional circumcision may not be compatible with the best medical interests of the child.

The Israeli media this morning is fully dominated by the death of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. His passing fills the first twenty pages of this morning’s Israel Hayom. The headline in Yediot Ahronot simply declares “Great Sorrow,” while Maariv, Haaretz and Israel Hayom focus on the enormous crowds which made Rabbi Yosef’s funeral the largest in Israel’s history. In the commentary reflecting on Rabbi Yosef’s life and significance, Nahum Barnea notes in Yediot Ahronot that a wide range of Israelis took to the streets at his funeral yesterday, indicating the large influence that Rabbi Yosef had beyond ultra-Orthodox and Sephardi circles. Maariv speculates over the future of Shas without Rabbi Yosef. Shalom Yerushalmi predicts that future support for Shas is liable to be restricted to just “hard-core members alone.”

In addition to Rabbi Yosef’s death, Israel Hayom also reports that two men have been arrested on suspicion of shooting a nine-year-old Israeli girl in the West Bank on Saturday night. Haaretz says that the Women of the Wall group, which has spearheaded a campaign for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall has agreed to a compromise over prayer rights at the site.