BBC News and Reuters report that Lebanon and Israel have agreed to hold talks aimed at ending a long-running sea border dispute. The dispute arises over overlapping boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean. The speaker of the Lebanese parliament said both sides agreed to a ‘framework’ for the negotiations and Israel’s energy minister said the talks would begin at the end of the month. The US welcomed the ‘historic agreement’ with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying the mediation “offers the potential for greater stability, security, and prosperity for citizens in both nations”.

The Independent reports that Egyptian security forces are using dating apps to target and imprison people in the LGBT+ community. A report from Human Rights Watch says that police are using social media and apps to find, arbitrarily arrest, torture and abuse gay, lesbian, bi and trans people. Security forces are creating fake profiles that are then used to arrest and bring charges against members of LGBT+ community.

Reuters reports that Lebanon has asked Interpol to arrest the Russian captain and owner of the ship that brought the ammonium nitrate that detonated at the Beirut port in early August. Boris Prokoshev was the captain of the ship and Igor Grechushkin was identified as its owner.

The Telegraph reports that an investigation published by Amnesty International has found a “catalogue of cruelties” in detention centres across Saudi Arabia. The report sets out harrowing details about human rights abuses to African migrants in the detention centres.

The Associated Press reports that Turkey has been hiding the full extent of the country’s coronavirus outbreak after its Health Minister said the authorities were only reporting the number of patients being cared for in hospitals, and not asymptomatic positive cases. The country is not recording the number of new positive COVID-19 cases per day, which is a key indicator of where the outbreak is heading. An opposition legislator claimed the real number of daily new infections was 19 times higher than figures reported by the government.

Mehul Srivastava writes in the Financial Times about the emergence of Naftali Bennett as the chief critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of coronavirus. Bennett, who got his start in politics as Netanyahu’s chief-of-staff, had spent most of his political career in the premier’s shadow. But now Bennett “has spent months hammering Netanyahu for failing to properly control the virus, painting the Likud party leader as incompetent and uninterested.”

A report in The Economist profiles Iraq’s failure in combatting COVID-19. While most Arab states have dealt with the virus by imposing a lockdown, Iraq gave up on such preventative measures. The country’s leadership seems powerless to enforce the wearing of masks and social distancing. The country has the largest death toll of any other Arab country with 350,000 infected and more than 9,000 killed by the virus.

In The Economist’s obituary of Kuwait’s Sheikh Sabah al-Sabah, the paper writes that his death “robs the Gulf of a real diplomat”. Al-Sabah was able to resist the powerful influence of its neighbour, Saudi Arabia, and turn the small country into an influential player, among other achievements.

Reuters reports that amid the ongoing clash between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Armenia recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations over Israeli arms sales to Azerbaijan. After Azerbaijan acknowledged using Israeli-made weapons in its fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh, a spokeswoman for the Armenian foreign ministry said “Israel’s workstyle is unacceptable. The ministry has to call back its ambassador in Israel.”

All the Israeli media report the latest Health Ministry announcement that 31 more people have died of coronavirus, with the total deaths now 1,622. Despite Israel being in partial lockdown for the last two weeks, yesterday around 7,600 new cases were diagnosed. The Health Ministry noted this is a slight drop after the day before which saw a record breaking, 9,000 new cases. The positivity rate still remains high at 12.3 per cent but is lower than any other day this week. The number of patients in serious condition stands at 821, including 193 people on ventilators. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Israel, over 235,000 citizens have been infected, and nearly 180,000 of them have recovered so far. Maariv however notes that although the number of confirmed cases is four times higher than the UK, the number of dead is four times lower. Yediot Ahronot continues to note the disproportionally high rates among the ultra-Orthodox community which accounts for 40 per cent of new cases. The paper reports,  President Reuven Rivlin made an emergency visit to the home of the president of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages, Rabbi Shalom Cohen, and they issued a public call for a “joint battle against the coronavirus out of a sense of mutual responsibility while completely refraining from incitement.” Other senior Rabbis have called people to refrain from hosting non family guests in the sukkah and to hold prayer quorums in the open air.

All the Israeli media report the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved last night the regulations introduced by the government, which restrict demonstrations to maximum distance of one kilometre from one’s home, and in a group of 20 demonstrators at most. However, last night thousands of anti-government demonstrators took to the streets across Israel protesting the latest measures. Small groups of protesters gathered near main roads and on bridges across the country, with some marching to the Knesset, with dozens already protesting at a junction nearby. All the Israeli media report that the police are searching for the driver who rammed into two women last night at a protest demonstration in Tel Aviv and fled. One of them, Dorit Zak, told Kan Radio that as she was crossing an intersection with a group of demonstrators, a car hit her in the stomach, knocked her down and continued to drive. Another demonstrator was hit in the arm. “I wasn’t blocking the road, I wasn’t making a provocation, I was simply walking” Zak said. She added that other demonstrators helped her to get up. Overall, twelve demonstrators were detained as a result of disturbances. The police stated that many demonstrators had blocked roads, broken through barriers and failed to heed police instructions to disperse, even though the demonstration was declared to be illegal.

Yediot Ahronot reports that Armenia has recalled their envoy to Israel over Israeli arms sales to Azerbaijan. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in response: “Israel regrets Armenia’s decision to recall its ambassador. Israel sees great importance in its relations with Armenia and sees the Armenian Embassy in Israel as an important tool for promoting this relationship for the benefit of both peoples.”

Haaretz reports the Jerusalem District Court has extended the deadline for the filing of a response to the indictment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges. The deadline had been set for October 18 and has been deferred to November 29. That in turn might delay the beginning of the prosecution’s presentation of evidence against the prime minister by a month and a half. It is currently scheduled to begin in January.

Israel Hayom reports that the Trump administration is considering additional sanctions on Iran’s economy that would include targeting around 14 banks. A designation of Iran’s entire financial sector would effectively cut it off from the worldwide financial system with an exception for humanitarian purposes.