The Times, the Financial Times and the Guardian report on the possibility of the renewal of the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, painted a bleak picture of the prospects for survival of the nuclear deal, which US President Donald Trump has threatened to tear up on 12 May by refusing to waive a set of sanctions – a move that is integral to the agreement. Zarif indicated that should the US effectively pull out, Iran would refuse to stay inside the deal alongside the Europeans, calling that option “highly unlikely”.  The Daily Mail and the Financial Times also report that European leaders are exploring additional sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile programme and regional meddling, as well as more extensive inspection of its atomic sites, as they seek to dissuade the US from abandoning a nuclear deal between world powers and Tehran. Emmanuel Macron, French President, and Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, are expected to use separate official visits to Washington this week to urge Trump to stick with the accord.

BBC News Online, the Telegraph and the Times report that Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman has dismissed suggestions that Israeli intelligence agency Mossad assassinated a Palestinian lecturer who was shot dead in Malaysia on Saturday. Lieberman said it was likely that Fadi al-Batsh, 35, was killed as part of an internal Palestinian dispute. Lieberman also added that al-Batsh who was a scientist, was a “rocket expert and no saint”. Two men on a motorbike fired 10 shots, killing the Hamas member on a street in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. His family has accused Mossad of being behind the killing. Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, said after the killing that, based on the pattern of previous assassinations by the Israeli intelligence agency, “Mossad is not [far] away from this disgraceful, terrible crime. There will be an unsettled account between us. We cannot give up on the blood of our sons, youths and scholars.”

The Independent reports on female protestors who “braved Israeli sniper fire and reached the perimeter fence. Tearing a piece away they made it back to safety, holding their trophy”. One of the protesters interviewed said she had “this feeling of strange courage” as she got closer to the fence. She also spoke of being inspired by Ahed Tamimi, the 17-year-old West Bank teenager, currently being held in an Israeli jail after she slapped an Israeli soldier outside her home.

The Independent reports that Israeli secret service agents ran an entire fake luxury beach resort in Sudan as a front for its operations in the 1980s, according to the BBC. A group of Mossad agents were tasked with smuggling thousands of Jewish refugees in Ethiopia, known as Beta Israelis, into Israel in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Thousands of Ethiopian Jews were stranded in Sudan, a Muslim-majority nation hostile to Israel. The agents had to smuggle the refugees across Sudan, then sailed across the Red Sea or airlifted them to Israel. Because Sudan and Israel were enemies, both the Ethiopian Jews and Mossad agents had to keep their identities hidden.

The Observer published a column by Simon Tisdall which argues that although last week Israel celebrated its 70^th year of independence with “a lavish party,” he believes that war with Iran could be looming.

The Guardian published an editorial that argues that the Gaza protests present “a new challenge to Israel’s blockade”. They write that the “protests were envisaged as a grassroots nonviolent campaign to remind the world that Palestinians whose families were driven into exile during the establishment of Israel consider their right to return inviolable”. Further, the editorial argues that “subjugation of Palestinians erodes Israel’s standing internationally and damages its democracy at home”.

The Daily Mail via AFP reports that organisers of an initial Israeli phase of the next Giro d’Italia cycling contest said on Sunday that they do not fear the event will be boycotted. “We are happy to say that, for the moment, there is full participation by all the teams, and we anticipate no problems,” Daniel Benaim, a Giro official, told a news conference in Tel Aviv. The first three stages of this year’s competition will take place in Israel next month, marking the first time the event has started outside Europe.

The Daily Mail via AFP reports that a letter penned by Richard Wagner warning of Jewish influence in culture will be auctioned next week in Israel, where public performances of the composer’s works are effectively banned. Tuesday’s sale of the handwritten letter, dated April 25, 1869 and addressed to French philosopher Edouard Schure, could rekindle the debate in Israel on the controversial composer. Wagner wrote in the letter that Jewish assimilation into French society prevents the observation of “the corroding influence of the Jewish spirit on modern culture”, adding that the French know “very little” about the Jews.

Maariv, Yediot Ahronot, and the Jerusalem Post report that the Malaysian Police published photo sketches of two men suspected of shooting dead a Hamas-affiliated Palestinian engineer from the Gaza Strip near the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. Ismail Haniya announced yesterday that a Hamas delegation has left for Malaysia to investigate the death of Dr. Fadi al-Batsh, who was assassinated on Saturday morning in Kuala Lumpur by two unidentified assailants. In Maariv, Yossi Melman writes that “in recent years Hamas has increased its efforts to expand its presence to additional countries and to deepen the presence it already has in other countries. The goal of that effort is first and foremost to improve its military capabilities. That might best be described as ‘outsourcing’ its research and development efforts. Hamas has come to realise that given the combination of the accurate intelligence that Israel has and the IAF’s capabilities, every time it has the opportunity Israel strikes at Hamas’s laboratories and research and development facilities in the Gaza Strip that are used to improve its rockets’ accuracy and to increase their range, as well as its efforts to create underwater capabilities.”

All the Israeli newspapers discuss Natalie Portman’s decision not to attend the Genesis Prize. In Haaretz, Anshell Pfeffer asks “could a Bibi boycott work,’ saying that Portman’s decision not to accept the Genesis Prize was not a victory for the movement to boycott Israel, but for the movement to boycott Israel’s Prime Minister. He adds that “unlike BDS, this could actually catch on. For most people, Portman and Netanyahu are not ordinary human beings. They are both brands. And the most dangerous thing for a brand is to become toxic. A country is a brand as well. Netanyahu has succeeded to a large degree in merging his own brand with that of Israel. It is only to be expected that those who care about the country will begin to make greater efforts to distinguish between them – further toxifying Brand Netanyahu in the process”. Seth Frantzman in the Jerusalem Post argues that “a healthy relationship with critics in the Diaspora should encourage connections to the larger milieu of Israel. The Portman case shows that Jerusalem cannot take for granted that voices like hers will not seek pushback on Israel’s policies or the demands of its leaders. That means taking seriously the views of those like Portman and respecting that they have something to say. A relationship between Israel and the Diaspora can’t be predicated on clichés and a few days of meetings every year.”

Yediot Ahronoth’s lead story today is built around a series of six photographs of Palestinian children taking part in the demonstrations near the Gaza Strip’s border fence, under a headline that reads: “This is how Hamas uses children.” Yossi Yehoshua writes that “they wear a Chicago Bulls or Barcelona soccer club jersey, jeans and a childish haircut – this is how Hamas sends young children, some of whom appear to be no more than ten years old, to take part in the demonstrations on the Gaza Strip border fence and to serve as human shields. The IDF is still investigating the incident in which a teenage boy was shot dead on Friday. Northern Brigade Commander Col. Avi Rosenfeld is expected to submit findings to OC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir in the course of the coming day.”

Kan Radio News reports that a Rafah resident died last night in Gaza after being shot at the border fence demonstrations on Friday, thus increasing the number of Palestinians killed in the clashes this weekend to six.

Maariv reports that Education Minister Naftali Bennett announced yesterday that he will introduce a new “override clause” for approval by the Ministerial committee for legislation on Sunday. The new law would allow the Knesset to override Supreme Court decisions and re-introduce laws that the Court had disqualified. The paper states that “Bennett’s announcement, alongside Kahlon’s statements on [NBC morning News show] Meet the Press (in which he said ‘sometimes you reach a point where the agreements cannot be kept and the Knesset must be dissolved, so let’s set a time for dissolving the Knesset’) increase the feeling within the coalition that elections could be on the way”.

The override clause has been criticised by the opposition. MK Yael German of Yesh Atid said: “Bennett’s override clause brings a Trojan horse into our democracy.” Meretz Chairwoman Tamar Zandberg said: “Things cannot proceed as usual while a battle over right wing seats makes the High Court of Justice the focal point in the guise of a sacrificial animal. The override clause, if it is passed, places Israeli democracy in a new situation in which there is no system of checks and balances—there is only the dictatorship of the government.”

On Saturday night, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Supreme Court building in Jerusalem to protest against the government’s plans. Sunday’s Yediot Ahronoth reported that the Israel Democracy Institute conducted a comparative study that proves that the Supreme Court in Israel disqualifies few laws relative to other Western democratic countries. “The comparative data prove that the populist statements that are aired against ‘intensified activism’ by the Supreme Court are ludicrous and tendentious,” said Yohanan Plesner, the president of the Israel Democracy Institute.

Haaretz and Maariv report that Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich three year term is unlikely to be extended.

Kan Radio News also reports news from the US website Axios that Trump asked the Prime Minister in a telephone call about a year ago whether he genuinely wanted peace.