The Independent leads with the clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians that erupted on Saturday at the funeral of a 13-year-old who died after being killed by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank. The boy was shot, according to the local health ministry, during Palestinian protests over a new settlement outpost near his village. The Israeli military, commenting on the death, said “dozens of rioters” hurled rocks at Israeli personnel and border police, who responded with “riot dispersal means.” It denied that its forces used live ammunition.

The Times also reports that Rear-Admiral Ali Fadavi, deputy head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told students the Moshen Fakhrizadeh was killed by 13 bullets fired with such accuracy by a remote-controlled machinegun, which was mounted on a pick-up truck and controlled by artificial intelligence via a satellite feed. He claimed the machinegun identified Fakhrizadeh by facial recognition and was accurate enough that Fakhrizadeh’s wife, sitting next to him, was unhurt, contradicting reports at the time that she too had been killed.

The Telegraph and the Financial Times report on the IISS Manama Dialogue Security conference whereby Prince Turki al-Faisal, a Saudi former intelligence chief, launched a bitter attack on Israel, accusing the state of depicting itself as a “small, existentially threatened country, surrounded by bloodthirsty killers who want to eradicate her from existence”. He described the Jewish state as a “Western colonising power” and outlined a history of forcible eviction of Palestinians and destroyed villages. Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi addressed the meeting by videoconference shortly afterwards, expressing his “regret” over the comments, which come after years of covertly warming relations between the two Mideast powers.

The Guardian reports that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told the IISS conference that the Gulf states must be consulted if the JCPOA nuclear agreement with Iran is revived. “The only way towards reaching an agreement that is sustainable is through such consultation,” he said.

The Times and Independent report that an Egyptian court has charged three human rights activists in what the paper says is a test of Cairo’s relationship with the incoming Biden administration. The arrests of the three senior figures with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) for has become the country’s highest profile case for several years. They were arrested in November, days after meeting Western, including British, diplomats and have been charged with joining a terrorist group and spreading false information. The EIPR is one of the few local outlets for independent reporting on the country’s human rights record.

In the Israeli media, most of the attention is focused on the political crisis between the Likud and Blue and White. Maariv reports that Finance Minister Yisrael Katz met yesterday evening with Benny Gantz and several other representatives from Blue and White to discuss a timetable for the 2020 and 2021 state budgets. Katz presented at the meeting the same timetable that he first announced two months ago, in early October, in which the 2020 state budget is to be approved by the cabinet this Wednesday 9 December and is to be approved by the Knesset by 23 December. Katz also proposed that the 2021 state budget and the arrangements bill be approved by the cabinet on 17 December and to have them approved by the Knesset in February 2021.

Israel Hayom notes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not made a final decision on holding new elections. A senior Likud source said that whilst efforts were still being made to reach a compromise solution with Blue and White, he believed that the chances of reaching a compromise that would avert a new election were not high. The paper notes that Blue and White and Likud representatives on the Knesset’s House Committee are expected to clash over two issues: which Knesset committee is to be tasked with preparing the bill to dissolve the Knesset for its further readings in the Knesset plenum, and when early elections ought to be held — in March or in May-June.

Yediot Ahronot reports that a third lockdown is coming after a new spike in coronavirus infections. The paper says, “When the second lockdown first began to be lifted on October 18, it was clear that another wave was just a matter of time.  It isn’t clear what the country’s leaders were feverishly thinking before they brought us to our current situation. Did they think that it would be interesting to see what would happen if they amateurishly and sloppily sent more than a million children back to kindergartens and schools with no protective measures, reusing a format that had at least twice been proven to be an absolute failure? Were they curious about what would happen if malls were to be reopened on Black Friday of all days?”

Kan Radio News notes this morning that the coronavirus cabinet is expected to vote this evening on which measures will be used to curb the rising infection rate – the reproduction number currently stands at 1.24. Prof. Nachman Ash, the coronavirus project coordinator, presented to the coronavirus cabinet members two alternative plans last night: a full lockdown that would close schools, commerce, and Ben Gurion Airport; a partial lockdown to halt all commercial activity and to close schools only in red cities. The coronavirus cabinet extended until tomorrow at midnight the pilot plan that reopened malls, open-air markets, and museums.

Kan Radio News also reports that the Health Ministry has given the local health authorities the task of vaccinating two million citizens within six weeks. Every person who receives the vaccine will be given a first dose and then, three weeks later, a second dose. The local health authorities believe that they can vaccinate 90,000 to 100,000 people a day. Some may suffer from a shortage in nurses because, concurrent with the operation to vaccinate the public against the coronavirus, they are also vaccinating against the flu.

About 200 Israeli tourists were held up in the Dubai airport on Monday morning after landing in the UAE amid confusion about visa regulations, according to Channel 12 News. Passengers with non-Israeli citizenship were allowed into the country. The passengers with Israeli citizenship were allowed into the country after filling out an E-visa form. Before the change in regulations on Sunday evening, this was not required.