The Telegraph reports that US President Obama said in an interview with the New Yorker magazine that the chances of reaching final agreements on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Iran’s nuclear development and the Syrian Civil War is “less than 50-50.” However, he said that in all three cases, “we may be able to push the boulder half-way up the hill and maybe stabilise it.”

The Financial Times online reports that Israel’s Air Force yesterday carried out a targeted strike against an Islamic Jihad operative in the northern Gaza Strip who was responsible for a series of rocket attacks on southern Israel, including a salvo of five rockets fired towards Ashkelon on Thursday.

Both the Times and the Independent i report that Israel’s government has ordered an end to the nationwide distribution of gas masks due to a military assessment that the threat of chemical attack is low. There was a public rush to collect gas masks last year as speculation increased that Syria’s President Assad could use chemical weapons, which are now being dismantled.

The build-up to this week’s scheduled Geneva II Syria peace conference is widely covered. The Times says that the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition (SNC) had agreed to attend the conference despite internal misgivings and accusations that the Assad regime has permitted limited aid to starving residents of Yarmouk as a deceptive temporary diplomatic gesture. However, the online editions of the Guardian and Telegraph report that the SNC has now threatened to pull out of the talks unless United Nations’ Secretary General Ban Ki-moon rescinds an invitation for Iran to attend the first day of talks, an invite also opposed by the United States.

The Daily Mail reports that almost 200 Syrians were killed over the weekend by crude barrel bombs dropped by Assad regime aircraft on residential areas. The Telegraph online interviews a defector from the al-Qaeda affiliated ISIS Islamist opposition group in Syria, who claims that jihadists from the UK are being trained in Syria to launch attacks on their return to Britain.

The interim nuclear deal agreed between the P5+1 forum (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) and Iran begins implementation today and Metro reports that Iran’s Foreign Minister is hopeful it will be a positive move for the world. The Times says that Iran’s President Rouhani will use the feel-good factor of the deal to woo foreign investors at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. An editorial in the Times warns that despite the deal, Iran has a long way to go to restore the world’s trust and Tehran could use the deal to drag out talks and build secretive nuclear plants.

In the Independent, Robert Fisk says that last week’s 98.1 per cent approval of Egypt’s new constitution is a fabricated figure and symbolises a return to Egyptian dictatorship.

In the Israeli media, Yediot Ahronot leads with a petition from around 100 Israeli businessmen, calling on the Israeli government to reach a peace agreement with the PA soon, given that “if Israel wants a stable economy and wants to enjoy a good future and continued growth—we have to reach an agreement.” The group, which is part of an Israeli-Palestinian initiative called Breaking the Impasse will attend this week’s World Economic Forum in Geneva.

The leading story in Maariv claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed intelligence agencies to collect evidence of Iranian violations of the interim nuclear deal agreed with the P5+1 forum in order to present such information to the international community.

Tension on the Gaza border has led to the closure of a number of schools in Ashdod this morning, according to Maariv, Haaretz and Israel Radio news. There has been an increase in Gaza rocket fire during the last month and yesterday Israel’s military carried out a strike against an Islamic Jihad operative responsible for many of the missiles. As a precaution against increased tensions, the Ashdod Municipality has instructed around 4,000 children to stay home as their schools or kindergartens do not include the requisite protected areas.