There is widespread coverage of the funerals which took place yesterday of the three Israeli teenagers kidnapped and murdered in the West Bank nearly three weeks ago. The Times, Telegraph, Independent, Guardian, Independent i, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Sun, Daily Mirror and Evening Standard all report the huge crowds at the funerals of Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaer, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, yesterday afternoon in central Israel, which were addressed by President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. All articles emphasise that Israel’s government is weighing its response to the murders and that some degree of action against Hamas is seemingly inevitable, with two Hamas activists prime suspects in the murder. However, all note that there is disagreement among Israeli ministers over the exact appropriate course of action. The Financial Times notes that Israel’s Air Force carried out a series of air strikes in Gaza, in response to continued rocket fire on southern Israel.

Writing in the Telegraph, Con Coughlin says that the murders hand Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas a sharp dilemma, as he must choose between his unity pact with Hamas and peace. In the Guardian, Anshel Pfeffer says that the kidnapping re-awakened the most powerful Israeli fears and that for many, such incidents challenge the “core purpose” of Israel, to guarantee safety for Jews. An editorial in the Guardian says that although there is no diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians, equally there is no military solution to the conflict. In the Independent, Robert Fisk maintains that Israeli settlement remains at the root of the conflict and laments that violent recriminations show history merely repeating itself.

The Times suggests that both the United States and Iran are involved in training new elite Iraqi forces to combat the threat of the Sunni Jihadi group ISIS, which has swept through western Iraq in recent weeks. The Financial Times claims that ISIS sleeper cells are waiting to spring into action in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The online editions of the Guardian, Independent, Financial Times and Telegraph all report that Iraq’s parliament has failed to nominate a new speaker, stalling any progress on establishing a national unity government.

The Guardian online includes a feature on the disarmament of Syria’s declared chemical weapons, which it says will be completed by the end of September.

The Israeli media focuses squarely on the funerals yesterday of the three murdered youngsters. Maariv leads with the headline, “Grave of brothers” after the three youths were buried alongside each other in Modiin. Israel Hayom’s headline is “Heartbroken country.” Haaretz focuses on the funerals and last night’s meeting of the security cabinet to determine Israel’s response to the murders.

Yediot Ahronot highlights the last-gasp phone call to police made by one of the boys, minutes after the kidnapping, which police were slow to act upon, potentially hampering the search for the teenagers. A gag order on the recording was lifted yesterday and there is significant commentary on the failings of the police over the emergency call. Writing in Yediot Ahronot, Sima Kadmon says that it would be unrealistic to expect the police commissioner to resign over the incident, but there must be an admission and apology for the failure. In Maariv, Ben Caspit criticises the police’s “lack of initiative, obtuseness and incompetence,” but notes that the three boys would not have been saved even had the police responded correctly.

Israel Radio news reports that approximately 40 Hamas activists were arrested in the West Bank last night and that clashes took place between Israeli forces and Palestinians in the Nablus region.