BBC News, The Guardian, Reuters, Financial Times, The Telegraph, Associated Press and The Jewish Chronicle report that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political rival, Benny Gantz, have signed an agreement to form an emergency national unity government. The Guardian reports that a copy of the power-sharing agreement said Netanyahu, currently the interim leader, would remain in the role for 18 months before handing over to Gantz for the remainder of a three-year term. The Financial Times reports that Gantz would be named either foreign minister or defence minister, whilst also assuming the role of deputy prime minister in the initial government. The Independent reports that cabinet positions would, however, be divided between the two parties with the Likud and its political allies holding portfolios including finance, health and education while Blue and White and their partners would hold the defence, foreign affairs, justice and economy ministries. The Associated Press report that the deal also requires the approval of both parties on key appointments including the attorney general and the state prosecutor — granting Netanyahu veto power over the officials who hold sway over his legal fate. The Jewish Chronicle reports that Monday’s agreement also sets an explicit date — 1 July 2020 — when the cabinet can discuss proposals to annex areas of the West Bank as envisaged by President Trump’s peace plan.

Sky News, The Independent and The Guardian report video footage showing Israelis practicing social distancing during a protest against ‘anti-democratic’ measures taken by the government to fight Covid-19.

Reuters reports that Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javid Zarif wore face masks on Monday for their meeting in Damascus, where they said the West was exploiting the coronavirus pandemic for political ends, state media said.

Reuters reports that Turkey’s plan to switch to a new Russian missile defence systems has been delayed by the coronavirus outbreak but it does not intend to reverse its decision, which has drawn the threat of US sanctions, a senior Turkish official said.

The Independent reports that Hezbollah has launched its newest war in the battle against coronavirus, rolling out a battle plan to tackle the spread of the disease.

Reuters reports that US President Donald Trump said on Monday that his administration was looking at the possibility of stopping incoming Saudi Arabian crude oil shipments as a measure to support the battered domestic drilling industry.

The Times reports that Turkey has flown F-16 fighter jets over the Libyan coast as it steps up intervention in the country’s civil war, although military authorities in Ankara said the flights were part of a training exercise. The Telegraph reports that Libya’s UN-recognised government claimed to be on the brink of breaking General Khalifa Haftar’s year-long siege of Tripoli after an offensive backed by Turkish forces succeeded in capturing several key towns.

The Guardian reports that The Independent has found itself caught in a bizarre tit-for-tat press freedom war between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, after the British publication’s Turkish-language site was banned by authorities in Ankara over its links to Riyadh.

Reuters reports that hundreds of Tunisians who were stranded in Libya after the borders were closed over the coronavirus crisis reached a Tunisian frontier post on Monday, Tunisia’s Interior Ministry said.

In the Associated Press, Aron Heller describes how Holocaust survivors claim current isolation and sense of danger emerging from the coronavirus outbreak has triggered difficult memories linked with their wartime experiences.

All the Israeli media cover Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day. This morning a two minute memorial siren was heard across the country. Due to coronavirus the official ceremonies at Yad Vashem and the Knesset will take place without an audience. President Reuven Rivlin spoke at the official opening ceremony last night saying, “Exactly 75 years have passed since the gates of hell were opened. In the spring of 1945, a few months after the furnaces of Auschwitz were extinguished, the sun shone over Bergen-Belsen and the other camps. For six million of our brothers and sisters, it was too late. When the liberators entered the camps, they stood before hell on earth. Bodies scattered, and the corpses walking among them. They were the ‘Muselmanner’, the living dead, starved, parched with thirst, exhausted and sick. Their families had been murdered and incinerated, massacred or missing. They had lost everything, even the ability to weep. Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel described it thus: ‘No one wept in the camp, as if you were afraid that once you started, you would not be able to stop. Freedom will be, as far as we were concerned, the ability to cry again.’” Channel 12 News reports that there are now 14.7 million Jews around the world, the same level as in 1925. At the beginning of World War Two there were just over 16.5 million. Of those alive today, 6.7 million live in Israel, among them 189,500 Holocaust survivors, with an average age of 83.9. In the last year, 15,170 survivors have died, an average of around 40 a day.

All the Israeli media report the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Israel stands at 13,883, while 181 patients have died. 142 patients are in serious condition, of which 113 are on ventilators. At least 135 patients are in moderate condition and 9,072 have mild symptoms. The number of Israelis who have recovered from the virus now stands at 4,353, which is the six day in a row whereby the number of recovered patients exceeds the number of new diagnoses. There are currently 521 coronavirus patients receiving treatment in hospitals while 6,620 people are fighting the virus at home. Another 2,215 people are currently receiving treatment in specially designated hotels and none are awaiting a decision on whether they will be treated.

All the Israeli media cover the announcement of a new government, with Maariv including a range of responses. The chairman of the Likud coalition negotiating team, Minister Yariv Levin, said, “A national emergency government is the correct and logical thing at this juncture. We need unity to cope with the current economic and health challenges, and to emerge from this crisis stronger.” MK Yoaz Hendel (Derech Eretz), wrote on Facebook, “I thought from the outset that the State of Israel needed a unity government. That’s not just the need of the hour, but rather an ideology that stems from my deep familiarity with the people, its plusses and minuses. It’s not all perfect, but there is nothing more important than a unity government this evening.”  Yesh Atid-Telem Chairman Yair Lapid wrote on Twitter, “So the compromise over the Judges Selection Committee is that Bibi chooses all the representatives on the committee. Gantz and Ashkenazi agreed to let a someone charged with criminal offenses appoint the judges who will hear his case. There’s no limit to the disgrace.”  Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Liberman said, “I welcome the formation of the government, even though this is not the unity government that the public wanted and it is imperative at this time. This is another Netanyahu government and his right-wing messianic-Haredi bloc, with a fig leaf of two lieutenant generals…We will be a practical opposition. If the government does the right thing on the Palestinian issue, on economic issues and the battle against the coronavirus, we’ll support it from the outside. On the other hand, we will not hesitate to criticise mistaken decisions, laws on religion and state that undermine the principle of live and let live, and we will continue to fight for the self-employed, for the pensioners, for new immigrants, for the disabled and to heal the health system.” Meretz Chairman Nitzan Horowitz attacked the agreement by saying: “Bibi and Gantz’s gift to the citizens of Israel at a time of huge economic crisis—the largest government in the country’s history. Thirty-four ministers (plus deputy ministers) to man outrageous ministries to sew up a corrupt deal. Thank you, truly, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”  Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh said, “The capitulation government of Gantz and Netanyahu is a slap in the face to most of the citizens who voted again and again to oust  Netanyahu. Gantz wasn’t courageous enough to win, and chose to approve annexation, racism, and corruption.”

In the commentary in Yediot Ahronot, Nahum Barnea writes, “It isn’t difficult to envision how things are going to play out in the new government. It will begin with an abundant display of mutual respect. Then the right-wing ministers and the right-wing factions in the Knesset will begin to pummel Blue and White’s ministers into submission … will Gantz ultimately replace Netanyahu? Very few people in the political establishment believe that he will.”

Ben Caspit in Maariv writes, “If Gantz takes possession of the Prime Minister’s Residence on Balfour Street … that will be an incredible achievement, even if it isn’t final. Only if he succeeds in putting down a stake there and marking the end of the era of the family that spread rot through a party and through an entire country will that be an historic achievement. In the meantime, one can certainly describe this government as the most obtuse, inflated and out-of-touch government ever to have been formed in Israel. Thirty-six ministers and 16 deputy ministers at a time in which more than a million Israelis have lost their jobs, millions of others are worried about whether they will be able to put food on the table in another month, and Israel finds itself stuck in the deepest economic pit ever known in the modern era. The fact that Netanyahu and Gantz were even capable of considering forming a monstrosity of this kind at the current juncture in time is proof of the moral nadir we have reached in the Netanyahu era.”

Kan Radio News reports that according to Syrian state television, the Israel Air Force last night carried out an attack in Palmyra, on the outskirts of Homs. According to the report, Syrian anti-aircraft batteries intercepted several incoming missiles. The Lebanese network Al-Mayadeen reports that a military position was attacked in the Palmyra airport, adding that it ended in failure. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that military targets associated with Iranian militias were attacked. No casualties have yet been reported in connection to the attack. Israel Hayom notes the strikes came hours after Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif was in Damascus where he met with President Bashar Assad and his Syrian counterpart.