BBC News reports on how the war in Ukraine could worsen the crises in Yemen and Afghanistan. It notes how the rocketing cost of food and fuel have forced the UN to halve the amount of food it is giving to people in Yemen. The war in Ukraine has also led to countries being selective about who they help. An emergency appeal launched by the UN in March saw Yemen receiving only a third of the aid it needed from donor countries.

The Independent reports on how victims of the 2017 gas attack in Syria are calling for justice. The paper notes that although the UN found that the attack was launched by Syrian state forces, “as the attack reaches its five year anniversary, survivors and human rights campaigners say the failure to hold anyone accountable for chemical attacks in Syria could encourage further use of such banned weapons”.

Reuters reports on how global casinos are looking at the United Arab Emirates as a new gambling hub, in what could be a watershed moment for the Gulf. One of the smaller emirates is planning to regulate gaming in some of its resorts. Sources told the paper that a route for legal gambling would happen soon, and would be up to each emirate to decide whether and how to regulate it, but did not provide a timeframe.

The Associated Press reports on the latest in a string of deadly incidents in Israel, in which an Israeli police officer shot and killed a Palestinian man who had stabbed him in the city of Ashkelon. The Palestinian was identified as a resident of Hebron in the West Bank.

The Israeli media continues to focus on the security situation ahead of Passover holiday this Friday. IDF troops made arrests and confiscated weapons, including explosive charges, in several locations across the West Bank yesterday. The operations were focused primarily on the northern West Bank, an area that was home to the men who committed the attacks in Bnei Brak and Tel Aviv. Haaretz reports that the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 34-year-old Palestinian man was killed this morning in clashes with Israeli forces in Nablus, and at least 10 others were wounded. According to Israeli media reports, the IDF has also continued to take a range of defensive actions, including deploying additional troops along the separation barrier to prevent easy and unchecked entry into Israel. The security establishment believes that the recent increased activity by the IDF and the Israel Police has prevented more than 20 terror attacks.

According to a report in Yediot Ahronot, Israel Police have returned to the West Bank 9,836 Palestinians who were in Israel illegally since the start of the year, more than half of whom were caught in the Jerusalem area. Formal investigations were begun against 5,500 of them, and 2,115 were placed under physical arrest. A total of 1,704 police investigations were begun against individuals accused of driving illegal Palestinians into Israel, and 170 of the Israelis in question were physically arrested. The security establishment has stepped up its actions against Palestinian illegals in response to the recent wave of terrorism, and 2,482 of the 5,500 investigations were begun as of March; similarly, 761 of the 1,704 investigations into drivers were begun as of March.

Israel Hayom reports that the security establishment is on peak alert ahead of Passover eve. Part of the IDF’s effort is applying reinforcements to the separation fence area in hope of reducing the number of Palestinian residents of the West Bank who enter Israel illegally. The prevailing assessment is that the security forces’ recent efforts along the seamline has produced a marked drop in the number of Palestinians who have been able to cross the seamline into Israel daily. Yesterday, the IDF announced that it was deploying additional troops along the seamline: one infantry battalion, one Engineering Corps battalion and two companies that operate heavy machinery. An extra challenge for the IDF is that thousands of people are likely to visit the territories during the week of Passover, and settlers may also try to re-establish a presence in Evyatar and Homesh during the holiday.

Yediot Ahronot’s military affairs commentator, Alex Fishman, profiles what his headline describes as the “changing face of terrorism.” Reflecting on the perpetrator of the Tel Aviv attack, Fishman writes that he belongs “to the new generation of Palestinian terrorists, a generation that holds the Palestinian Authority and the other established Palestinian organisations in contempt. As opposed to the knife-wielding terrorists we encountered in 2015-2016, the new terrorists cross the Green Line with guns and intend to kill. No one sends them, and they don’t feel obliged to anyone. As far as they’re concerned, both Fatah and Hamas have given up the armed struggle.” Fishman says the perpetrator of the Bnei Brak attack “also belongs to this new breed, which is motivated by deep disdain for the Palestinian establishment and blind hatred for Israel”.

Alternatively, Efraim Ganor argues in Maariv that the recent spate of attacks does have a guiding hand, writing: “Iran, which operates against Israel in several branches and on several fronts, ‘planted’ in Samaria, with the help of Islamic Jihad operatives, leaders of ‘sleeper’ terrorist cells. This was a slow process that began with quiet and secret recruitment and provided training on different ways of committing terror attacks. This method is part of the strategic battle that Iran is waging against Israel together with its proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Quds Force and the Shiite militias that are trying to establish a threat against Israel in Syria, and of course, Islamic Jihad in Gaza, which is entirely dependent on Iran, which bankrolls all its operations, as opposed to Hamas, which has various sources of funding.”

Also in the media is an interview with astronaut Eytan Stibbe, the second-ever Israeli man in space. He told media Tuesday that he has begun to acclimate to the state of non-gravity at the International Space Station. Stibbe told Ynet that he managed to get a glimpse of Israel for the first time from the International Space Station window. Speaking to Maariv, Stibbe said he and his fellow astronauts are now acclimated enough to move backward and to be able to orient themselves in all directions. Stibbe, a former fighter pilot, is tasked with carrying out 35 experiments for companies and research institutions on the privately funded Rakia Mission to the orbiting lab.

Yediot Ahronot reports that the Justice Ministry has approved connecting 30 West Bank outposts to the electricity grid. The matter is now in the hands of Defence Minister Benny Gantz, who must give final approval. The ministry’s decision comes after the legal opinion of Attorney Carmit Yulis, the deputy attorney general for civilian affairs, based on principles from the electricity law that was recently passed in the context of Bedouin villages in the Negev. Defence Minister Gantz has previously conditioned the outposts being connected to electricity to also connecting about ten Palestinian villages in Area C, to show that Israel makes no distinction between Israelis and the Palestinians in the area. Justice Minister Gideon Saar welcomed the decision and wrote on Twitter: “I hope that this will be fully completed within a reasonable time after past Israeli governments refrained from addressing the issue.”