The Independent, Evening Standard and the online edition of the Guardian all report that violence and tensions in the West Bank have increased, as Israeli security forces continue to carry out searches and arrests in an operation to find three teenage Israelis who were kidnapped last week. The Guardian online highlights clashes in Jenin, which involved around 300 Palestinians.

The same article reports that Israel has banned the UK-based organisation Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), accusing it of funding Hamas, which Israel says is responsible for the abductions. The closure of IRW activities is part of an Israeli crackdown on Hamas during the past few days, with the online editions of the Telegraph and Independent reporting that Israeli forces have continued to arrest more Hamas activists.

Meanwhile, the Times focuses on an Israeli investigation into police conduct after it was revealed that one of the kidnapped youngsters placed a call to alert police to his abduction, which was initially dismissed as a prank.

The online edition of the Telegraph says the Kurdish military intelligence chief has claimed that up to 450 British citizens are fighting with the Sunni Jihadist group ISIS, as it makes military gains in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Guardian online and the Financial Times online both cover US President Obama’s decision to send 300 military advisors to Iraq to assist the Iraqi government’s fight against ISIS.

Meanwhile, the Independent online says that international chemical weapons inspectors have concluded that Syrian President Assad’s forces have used chlorine gas in a “systematic manner.” The Guardian online reports that Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister announced that there are now more than one million Syrian refugees in Turkey, who have fled their country’s brutal civil war.

In the Israeli media, the operation to find the kidnapped Israeli youngsters remains the top story. Israel Hayom leads with comments made by the mother of one of the teenagers, who urged his friends to remain strong even if the boys do not return home. Maariv also highlights her comments. As searches and arrests in the West Bank continue, Maariv leads with the threat of a third intifada from a Hamas leader. Haaretz speculates that Israel’s government will announce funding for new settlement construction as a response to the abductions. Meanwhile, Yediot Ahronot’s Yossi Yehoshua gives an eye-witness account, having been embedded in the elite Duvdevan unit in Hebron.

In commentary surrounding the operation, Yoav Limor in Israel Hayom says that despite the rhetoric from the security establishment that the search will continue for as long as it takes, “Israel has nearly maximized its ability to attack Hamas’s infrastructure (political, economic, civilian and of course military) in the West Bank.”

Meanwhile, Israel Radio news says that Israel’s Air Force last night struck several targets in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire on southern Israel, which saw the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercept a rocket heading for Ashkelon.

In other news, Maariv and Israel Hayom report that former-Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski was yesterday sentenced to six years in prison for his part in the ‘Holyland’ affair. In the same case which saw former-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert receive a similar sentence, Lupolianski was found guilty of accepting bribes in exchange for helping expedite the controversial Jerusalem housing project.