This morning’s Metro reports that two Palestinians were killed yesterday near the West Bank city of Hebron, after they attempted to stab Israeli soldiers on patrol. In addition, the same report says that another Palestinian was killed during a confrontation with Israeli soldiers near Bethlehem. Locals reportedly attacked the Israeli troops with firebombs, prompting clashes. Yesterday’s incidents are part of a wave of violence, which has seen at least 23 Israelis killed since October.

The online editions of the Guardian and Independent report dismay among some Palestinians towards the popular online accommodation service Airbnb, which lists residences in Israeli West Bank settlements without noting the disputed political status of the location.

The Guardian online reports that three Americans and one Belgian are attempting to sue the State of Israel in a Washington court, after a vessel they were aboard was raided by Israeli commandos on its way to the Gaza Strip in 2010, in intentional breach of Israeli naval restrictions. The plaintiffs are claiming that the vessel, Challenger 1, was a US-registered ship and that the Israeli military in effect invaded US territory.

The Financial Times online includes a feature on Israel’s burgeoning cyber-security sector, which attracted 20 per cent of the industry’s global private investment last year, second only to the United States.

Meanwhile, the Evening Standard and the online edition of the Times both cover comments made yesterday by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who indicated that Moscow could offer asylum to Syria’s President Assad as part of a political solution to the country’s bloody civil war. The Evening Standard and the online editions of the Telegraph and Times all report on the desperate conditions inside the Syrian town of Madaya, where around 40,000 people have suffered from starvation, malnutrition and neglect due to a siege by Assad’s troops and Hezbollah fighters.

The Independent, Daily Mail, Sun and the online edition of the Guardian all report that Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval forces yesterday seized two American military vessels including ten crew, after they ran aground inside Iranian waters following a mechanical fault. US officials say that they have been in contact with Iran and that all crew are safe. However, they have yet to be released.

In the Israeli media, the top story in Maariv, which is covered prominently in Yediot Ahronot and Israel Hayom, is the arrival yesterday of Israel’s newest submarine, the INS Rahav, which was welcomed in Haifa Port by dignitaries including President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The submarine, constructed in Germany, is thought to be capable of delivering a nuclear payload, boosting Israel’s so-called “second strike” ability. Writing in Maariv, Yossi Melman links Israel’s submarine fleet to Iran’s nuclear development, saying “As long as Iran, even temporarily, refrains from reaching the ability to assemble nuclear weapons—‎Israel’‎s need for a full-size submarine fleet for strategic deterrence purposes is not urgent.”

There are also several responses in the Israeli dailies to developments in Europe. Israel Hayom leads with the advice given to Marseille’s Jewish community not to wear traditional Jewish head coverings for fear of attack, after a Jewish man was stabbed there this week. It is also a major item in Maariv. Meanwhile, Israel Radio news covers the reaction of Israeli leaders to a call by Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom to investigate what she termed “extrajudicial killings” by Israeli forces of Palestinians who have launched recent knife attacks against Israelis. Opposition leader and Zionist Union head Isaac Herzog accused Wallstrom of providing a tailwind to terror.

Meanwhile, the top story in Haaretz, also reported prominently in Yediot Ahronot and Israel Hayom is the terror attack yesterday in central Istanbul, which killed at least ten people and appears to be the work of an ISIS-affiliated suicide bomber.