The Telegraph, Financial Times and online of the Guardian report that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday effectively nixed preliminary plans by Jewish Home’s Housing Minister Uri Ariel to construct 24,000 homes beyond the pre-1967 borders in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Netanyahu said the plans would create unnecessary conflict with the international community, particularly at a time when unity is needed regarding nuclear negotiations with Iran.

The Guardian reports that the IDF has been accused of two instances of practicing arrests and carrying out training exercises involving unwitting Palestinians in the West Bank. The report says the IDF admitted to acting “improperly” in one in of the cases.

The Independent says the Israeli government finds itself in a quandary over whether to permit a former security official to provide a deposition in a legal case against the Bank of China in the United States. The presiding court has ordered the official’s appearance, with his evidence considered critical to a case in which the Bank of China is accused by the families of terror victims of channelling funds to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Israel is keen to foster relations with China and is apparently reluctant to permit the official’s deposition.

The Guardian online claims US Secretary of State John Kerry will today pressure members of the US Congress not to introduce further sanctions on Iran, as he believes such action would endanger the negotiations currently taking place between P5+1 powers and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme. The Financial Times also mentions this story in a feature on the importance of the Arak plutonium plant in the negotiations. French officials believe that once operational, the Arak plant would be too dangerous to destroy and will be capable of producing one nuclear bomb per year. Meanwhile, the Times and Telegraph cover a lengthy Reuters investigation which has revealed that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei oversees a huge holding company with interests in all Iranian business sectors, worth £60 billion.

The Financial Times includes a feature on Israel’s treatment of Syrians wounded in the country’s civil war, reporting that since March three northern Israeli hospitals have been tending to severely wounded Syrians from all sides of the conflict on a humanitarian basis. In Syria itself, the Independent online says that the main Kurdish political faction has announced plans for a democratic transitional government in a semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north-east of the country.

The main item in this morning’s Israeli media is Prime Minister Netanyahu’s swift action in ordering Housing Minister Uri Ariel to halt preliminary West Bank construction plans which came to light yesterday. Haaretz and Israel Hayom focus on Netanyahu’s public demand that Ariel reconsider the plans, while Makor Rishon highlights criticism by the United States of the planned housing tenders. On a similar note, in reference to current tensions between Israel and the United States, the headline in Yediot Ahronot is “From one crisis to the next.”

Meanwhile, Maariv highlights comments made by a number of unnamed Israeli security officials who have said a third intifada will not erupt if the current peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) fail to bear fruit. They claim that the PA is far more motivated by economic prosperity rather than conflict. Their comments come after John Kerry last week appeared to raise the spectre of renewed conflict and violence if talks collapse.

Israel Hayom and Israel Radio news both report that the IDF will today despatch a delegation to the Philippines to assist victims of last weekend’s storm. They will set up a field hospital and extend medical treatment.