A video report from BBC News explores the life of two Syrian women 10 years after protest calling for freedom began across the country. Bashar al Assad’s regime responded to the protests in force, leading to increasing violence and civil war.

Reuters covers a new report from the International Committee of the Red Cross that highlights the high price young Syrians have endured over the last 10 years. The report notes that almost eight in 10 young Syrians have reported struggling to afford food and other basic necessities, with close to half losing their income because of the decade-long conflict. The Red Cross regional director for the Middle East said, “One of the shocking results of this survey is that we realised that 50% of Syrians had friends or a family member who was killed … one out of six Syrians had one of their parents either killed or wounded.”

The Independent reports that Syrian President Bashar al Assad and his wife Asma have tested positive for COVID-19. According to the country’s official news agency, the two displayed mild symptoms before testing positive and are now isolating at home.

The Guardian reports that US Senator Christ Murphy (D-CT) has urged the UK to follow President Joe Biden’s footsteps to end weapon sales to Saudi Arabia over the kingdom’s military campaign in Yemen. Murphy told the paper: “I think it would be really important for the British to adopt the same policies as the United States. I don’t know why Britain is any more interested than we are in having weapons be used to perpetuate war crimes.”

BBC News reports that Kyle Moore-Gilbert, the British-Australian academic jailed in Iran for 800 days, said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tried to recruit her in exchange for her release. Speaking in a recent interview she said, “I knew that the reason that they didn’t engage in any meaningful negotiations with the Australians [for my release] was because they wanted to recruit me, they wanted me to work for them as a spy.”

The Guardian reports that Moore-Gilbert also said that the Australian government should have gone public with her case earlier. She said: “Had my ordeal been made public, there’s no way I would’ve got 10 years.” She added that once her case was public “much greater attention was paid to my health and my condition”.

The Times reports that Moore-Gilbert said coming to terms with her husband’s infidelity during her imprisonment was more difficult than the 800 days she spent in an Iranian prison. She said: “It has been harder for me to process and come to terms with that [the affair], than it has been to come to terms with what happened in Iran.” Moore-Gilbert revealed that her husband was having an affair with her PhD supervisor, who was also involved in the campaign to free the jailed academic.

Reuters reports that the US has blacklisted two Iranian government interrogators over allegations of torture and human rights violations. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced yesterday that Ali Hemmatian and Masoud Safdari, along with their immediate family, would be barred from entering the United States. Blinked said, “We will continue to consider all appropriate tools to impose costs on those responsible for human rights violations and abuses in Iran.”

BBC News reports on why Palestinians are falling behind in their vaccination efforts. The paper notes that “Israel, which has the highest rate of COVID-19 vaccination per person in the world, has started vaccinating Palestinians who go to work there … the pace of vaccinations in the West Bank and Gaza – home to an estimated five million people – has been far slower.”

Jake Wallis Simons writes for The Spectator about how “Corruption affects everything in Palestine – even vaccines”. He notes, “Last week, the Palestinian health ministry was forced to come clean. In a statement, the ministry admitted that 10 per cent of the 12,000 doses it had received had been put aside for government ministers and members of the PLO’s executive committee … none of this should come as a surprise. One of the many sufferings that afflicts the residents of the West Bank, not to mention Gaza, is the corruption of their rulers.”

The Telegraph reports that Yassar Arafat’s nephew is challenging Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party ahead of the PA’s first legislative election since 2006. The paper notes that “Nasser al-Qudwa in talks to form breakaway political movement that could create major headache for President Mahmoud Abbas”.

Reuters reports that an Israeli-Canadian lobbyist was paid $2 million by Myanmar’s junta to “assist in explaining the real situation in the country”. Documents filed with the US Justice Department show that Ari Ben-Menashe was hired to lobby the United States, Saudi Arabia, The UAE, Israel, Russia, and the United Nations following a coup that left over 60 people dead and close to 2,000 arrested.

The Associated Press reports on the growing Jewish life in the UAE and Bahrain following the Gulf country’s normalisations agreements with Israel. The paper writes that “discreet Jewish communities in the Gulf Arab states that once lived in the shadow of the Arab-Israeli conflict are adopting a more public profile. Kosher food is now available. Jewish holidays are celebrated openly. There is even a fledgling religious court to sort out issues such as marriages and divorces.”

The Financial Times reports that US President Joe Biden’s decision to revoke the Trump administration’s designation of Yemen’s Houthi group as a terrorist organisations, coupled with increasing pressure on Saudi Arabia to end its involvement in the war, has further emboldened the rebels. An analyst at the Sana’a Centre for Strategic studies told the paper that: “The designation of the Houthis was stupid and harmful, but removing it without any conditions is as stupid, because for the first time you had leverage over the group. As much as you blame the Republicans for giving the Saudis a free hand, you can pretty much say the same about the Democrats with the Houthis.”

The Independent reports that the United Nations has demanded humanitarian access to a migrant detention centre in Sanaa, Yemen’s largest city, after a fire which left at least 30 people dead and upwards of 170 injured. The cause of the fire is believed to have been related to a Saudi-led coalition airstrike, which left surrounding buildings damaged. A UN official said that “while the cause of the fire is still unconfirmed, its impact is clearly horrific”.

Reuters reports that Saudi women rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul is hoping for her sentence to be “changed or modified a bit” ahead of her appeal hearing. Al-Hathloul was jailed in May 2018 and sentenced to six years in prison. She was released last month after nearly three years in prison.

David Gardner writes for the Financial Times about Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s condemnation of extremism and plea for pluralism in Iraq. He writes: “Grand Ayatollah and the Pope, two personally ascetic men who advocate social justice, are pooling their immense moral authority to combat extremism. They counter the narrative of many Arab despots, who blackmail the world into accepting that the alternative to their rule is Islamist theocracy, as well as the tendency of some Christian prelates in the east to see freedom in opposition to religious pluralism. Francis made a point of thanking Sistani for helping Christians to survive through Iraq’s darkest years.”

The Times reports on the threat facing Turkey’s Protestant community. The paper notes that suspicion linking an evangelical pastor to the country’s 2016 coup has forced dozens of Protestants to leave the country. As part of his effort to raise Turkey’s human rights record while seeking to join European Union, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has begun giving Turkey’s Protestant community some rights. But, “in recent years, the circumstances for Christians in general have begun deteriorating again as Erdogan has abandoned his European ambitions and become more stridently Islamist in his rhetoric and policies”.

The Associated Press reports on the latest anti-government protests in Lebanon. The tactic of burning tires to block key roads has become “the hallmark of a new flare-up of demonstrations against an intransigent political class that appears to do little as its country slides toward the political and economic abyss. Lebanon is mired in the worst economic crisis in its modern history, and the situation has been exacerbated by pandemic restrictions and an overwhelmed health care sector”.

In the Israeli media, Kan Radio reports of another murder in the Arab community. Israel Police are investigating the death of 14-year-old Mohammed Addas last night in Jaljuliya. An unknown gunman shot him and his 12-year-old friend while they were sitting outside Addas’ home. The 12-year-old sustained serious injuries; investigators believe the background to the incident is a clash between families. The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court issued a gag order on details of the investigation.

All the Israeli media report that the rate of COVID-19 continues to fall, amid concern that the reopening of the economy could cause another spike in infections. According to numbers released yesterday by the Health Ministry, there were 2,870 new cases, with a positive infection rate of 3.3 per cent. 643 people are in serious condition, 212 of whom are on ventilators. In total, 5,925 people have died in Israel from the disease and over 5m people have been vaccinated. Four new cities have been added to the list (of five) from which Israeli citizens will be allowed to return to the country: Athens, Rome, Moscow and Addis Ababa. At this stage, the decision covers one flight only, but other flights could be added if necessary. The Health Ministry and Israel’s public hospitals have signed a NIS 630 million deal to ensure that employees at public hospitals will continue to be paid and that they will be able to pay goods and service providers for the rest of the year.

Yediot Ahronot reports Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has warned that Palestinian hospitals are overfull and intensive-care units operating at 100 per cent capacity with coronavirus patients in some areas of the West Bank. The West Bank and Gaza, home to a combined 5.2 million Palestinians, have received around 34,700 vaccine doses to date. These came from small donations by Israel and Russia as well as 20,000 sent by the UAE to Gaza. On Monday, Israel began its vaccination programme for around 100,000 Palestinian laborers who work in Israel and in its West Bank settlements.

Israel Hayom covers the internal elections of Hamas and yesterday’s vote to elect its new leader in Gaza. Arab media initially reported that current Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, lost to Nizar Awadallah, but as no candidate won a majority subsequent votes were held which were also inconclusive. One report says that a victory for Awadallah “would give power to the organization’s pro-Iran faction … at the expense of the pro-Egypt faction headed by Sinwar,” whilst another report says that were Awadallah to win, it would be “an earthquake inside the Hamas leadership” that could impede “Israel’s attempts, with Egyptian assistance, to bring about calm in the Gaza Strip”.

Yediot Ahronot reports Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Tuesday evening that searches for the remains of executed Israeli spy Eli Cohen are underway in Syria. Earlier in the day, a source in Syrian said that an “item” thought to have belonged to the former spy was in Israel’s possession and was being examined for authenticity. The item was initially given to Russia, which is currently searching for Cohen’s remains in the region of the al-Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus.

Kan Radio also reports that a senior official in the Sudanese government has reaffirmed the strategic decision to develop ties with Israel and would not allow domestic opposition to derail that initiative. Sudan Sovereignty Council member El Taher Hajar said Sudan feels that the connection with Israel serves his country’s needs and the Palestinian issue is a separate one. Hajar said Israel had a moral responsibility towards the Sudanese emigres who live in Israel and should treat them as refugees.

Times of Israel covers the Brazilian delegation’s visit in Israel and notes that the country has agreed to establish a joint team to research, develop and produce COVID-19 vaccines during a meeting between top officials in Jerusalem on Tuesday. A delegation of Brazilian government officials headed by Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo and includes chair of the Congress Foreign Affairs Committee Eduardo Bolsonaro — the son of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro – arrived in Israel Sunday for a series of meetings with Israeli officials about efforts to tackle the pandemic, including an Israeli-developed nasal spray for patients that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as a “miracle” treatment.