The Telegraph online reports that a fire which broke out on Sunday night at the building in Jerusalem which houses the offices of Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, was likely caused by an electrical fault. There were fears that the fire had been caused by arson, but an initial investigation by firefighters indicates otherwise. Groups such as B’Tselem have come under attack in recent weeks from politicians and pressure groups who accuse them of working to the detriment of Israel and besmirching the country in international forums.

The Telegraph online also includes an interview with Israeli novelist Dorit Rabinyan, who was thrust into the headlines after a committee at Israel’s Education Ministry banned one of her books, “Borderlife” from schools. The committee deemed the storyline of a Jewish Israeli woman falling in love with an Arab man to be too controversial. In a separate piece, the Telegraph online interviews one of just hundreds of married Jewish-Arab couples in Israel about their experiences.

The Metro reports that Mohammed al-Qeq, a 33-year-old Palestinian man, who has been held in Israeli detention for six months is in critical condition, following 48 days on hunger strike protesting his incarceration. Israel’s Shin Bet security agency says that al-Qeq has been involved in Hamas terror activities.

The Times, Independent, Metro, Independent i and the online editions of the Financial Times, Telegraph and Guardian all cover the entry of food and aid to the besieged Syrian town of Madaya, near the Lebanese border. Syrian troops and Hezbollah fighters have cut off the rebel-held town of 40,000 people and at least 67 people have already died from starvation and lack of medication as a result. Elsewhere in Syria, several publications say that Russian jets have killed at least 12 children in an air strike which hit a school near Aleppo.

The Guardian online covers an op-ed in the New York Times by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif, who in the article accused Saudi Arabia of promoting “hatred and sectarianism.” Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia continue to escalate since Saudi authorities executed a Shia cleric last week and the Saudi embassy in Tehran was subsequently ransacked.

In the Israeli media, the top story in Yediot Ahronot is a report that Russia is in talks with Iran over selling arms and military hardware to Tehran. The weaponry apparently under discussion includes Sakhoi-30 fighter jets, T-72 tanks and sophisticated Yakhont missiles. The article says that the arms talks are “worrying” Israel, which is disappointed that the United States in particular is doing nothing to curb Iran’s military build-up as the international community readies to loosen sanctions on Tehran.

Meanwhile, the top story in Maariv, which is also covered in Yediot Ahronot and Israel Hayom, is the confirmation yesterday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be the only candidate in the upcoming Likud leadership election. Nonetheless, the party said that a poll will nonetheless be held at the cost of around £700,000. Both Ben Caspit in Maariv and Sima Kadmon in Yediot Ahronot express particular outrage that Likud members will be given the choice of either a vote for Netanyahu or a blank ballot, which is discarded as an invalid vote. As a consequence, there will be no facility to cast a vote against Netanyahu, who both accuse of presiding over something akin to a dictatorship.

There are prominent tributes to David Bowie, who died yesterday, in Yediot Ahronot, Maariv, Haaretz and Israel Hayom, which includes a headline on its front page “Farewell, Major Tom.”