BBC News Online, the Times and the Telegraph report that one of the last remaining parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been deciphered by researchers in Israel. Sixty tiny fragments were pieced together over a period of a year, identifying the name of a festival marking the changes between seasons. It also revealed a second scribe corrected mistakes made by the author.

The Independent and the Telegraph have reported on the protests staged by Arab Members of the Knesset (MKs) and were forcibly removed from the chamber during US Vice President Mike Pence’s speech. They heckled Pence and brandished signs which read: “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine”.

The BBC News Online, the Guardian, the Daily Express, the Telegraph, the Independent, the Financial Times, the Times and the Daily Mail reported on Pence’s speech to the Knesset. BBC News Online, the Telegraph, the Daily Express, the Independent, the Financial Times, the Times and the Guardian focused on his commitment to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem before the end of 2019. The date is earlier than some had expected. Announcing a date for the move was the highlight of Mr Pence’s Middle East tour, which has been dominated by Mr Trump’s decision in December to reverse decades of US policy to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The stories in the Guardian, Financial Times and BBC News Online also made reference to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ trip to Brussels to meet with EU Foreign Ministers in order to urge them to recognise a Palestinian state.  The Daily Mail  reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Pence’s speech to the Knesset as a “powerful expression of the enduring bond between our two countries,” and notes their shared work to prevent Iran from destabilising the region. Netanyahu says the two leaders discussed “common challenges and common opportunities” in the Middle East, including Iran. He says the Trump administration is “on the right side of history” by opposing the Iran nuclear deal.

The Independent reports that a press organisation in Israel has accused the authorities of “ethnic profiling” after a female Finnish journalist whose father is Palestinian, was told she had to undergo a strip search if she wanted to cover an event that was part of the Pence visit. She reportedly refused to do so and was prevented from covering the event.

The Independent reports on Abbas’ trip to Brussels to meet with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini and EU foreign ministers. Mogherini said leaders needed to “speak and act wisely”, and with a sense of responsibility, when discussing the Middle East peace process, and told Abbas the EU still believes that a two-state solution is the only viable way to meet both sides’ interests.

The Daily Mail via AP reports that the United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) on Monday launched an “unprecedented” appeal seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in response to funding cuts by the Trump administration. UNRWA’s commissioner-general, Pierre Krahenbuhl, on Monday called the decision “abrupt and harmful.” He said the agency will create new funding alliances and get the UN Secretary-General involved in high-level ministerial meetings to generate donations from countries. The campaign aims to raise $500 million to ensure that the agency’s core services are unaffected.

The Daily Mail via AP reports that Pence is making a visit to the Western Wall and meeting with Israeli President Reuvin Rivlin on his final day of a trip to Israel. He is also to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial before departing Israel later on Tuesday.

The Daily Mail reports that the first hijab-wearing model to appear in a L’Oreal haircare campaign has been forced to step down over a series of anti-Israel tweets. Amena Khan, from Leicester, said she “deeply regrets” her remarks from 2014, and apologised for the “upset and hurt that they have caused”. She had been criticised for a series of posts, including one that described Israel as an ‘illegal state’ and another branding the country as a “child murderer”.

The Daily Mail via AFP reports that a senior US Treasury official met on Monday in Lebanon with President Michel Aoun on a visit that comes after Washington announced a probe into Hezbollah “narcoterrorism”. The US Justice Department said on January 11 it was creating a task force targeting Hezbollah that the United States considers a terrorist group. US Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Marshall Billingslea met Aoun and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday.

All the Israeli media continue to prominently cover the visit of Vice President Pence.  Maariv highlights various aspects including his “declared loyalty and love for the Jewish people, he called Israel the US’s most important ally.”  They described him as “the embodiment of the Israeli right wing’s dreams in general, and Netanyahu’s dreams in particular”. “In contrast to the capricious, unpredictable Trump, Pence is calm, he means every measured word he says, and his beliefs are true.” However they caution, “There are 60 million Zionist evangelicals in the US of the kind that are hopelessly in love with us. But that’s it. Anyone who thinks that they are everywhere, is wrong. Unfortunately, there are a few other people in the world.”  Yediot Ahronot also concentrates on the warm embrace that they argue is valuable in and of itself.  Similarly Israel Hayom states, “In the special relationship between Washington and Jerusalem, there is also great importance to gestures, to symbols and to statements of deep solidarity and to public and sweeping support for Israel, particularly when they are based on the ideological and historic foundation of the alliance.”   Though Yediot Ahronot also notes, “Pence has not given up the aspiration of the United States to bring about an arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians.” This could well be less palatable to the right wing politicians that cheered so enthusiastically yesterday in the Knesset.

The papers also cover the plight of African asylum seekers who face a choice of being deported to Rwanda or imprisonment.  Yediot Ahronot and Haaretz cover the protest yesterday of around 2,000 African migrants, mostly asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan protesting outside the Rwandan embassy.  Rwanda has reportedly agreed to accept them in return for financial compensation, a claim the Rwandan government denies.   Maariv and Haaretz report on a group of El Al pilots who have declared they will not fly African asylum seekers to Rwanda if they are being forcibly deported from Israel.  However, Haaretz notes, “this statement will not affect planned deportations since El Al doesn’t actually operate flights to Rwanda. To date, Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers have been flown to Rwanda on foreign airlines through Jordan, Turkey and Ethiopia.”  The paper also reports, police arrested four asylum seekers in Ashdod on Sunday night on suspicion of using forged visas.

Maariv reports that Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will decide whether to prosecute Netanyahu on Case 1,000 and Case 2,000 in a joint decision, both cases together.  This is because there are shared investigative materials and witnesses.  For example, Ari Harow, the prime minister’s bureau chief who became a state witness, supplied information in both cases, and businessman Arnon Milchan is also linked to both of them.

Yediot Ahronot covers the IDF announcement of a new advanced and improved Skylark drone.  The new version, “allows for greater flight time, longer flight ranges, easier operation, more varied communication between forces and higher resolution photography”.  This is the IDF’s smallest drone and will be operated by the Artillery Corps.