The Telegraph says Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday questioned why European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton had not raised the issue of last week’s seizure of an apparent Iranian arms shipment, destined for Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip, during her meetings with Iranian officials in Tehran yesterday. Netanyahu said Ashton should not “ignore the true and murderous actions” of the Iranian government. Ashton heads the P5+1 delegation (US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany) in nuclear talks with Iran. The Independent, Times and Independent i report that Ashton commented during a joint press conference, alongside Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif, that there is “no guarantee” that a long-term deal will be reached between Tehran and the P5+1 powers over Iran’s nuclear development.

The Independent i says that Hamas troops broke up a meeting of Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening, attacking participants. Hamas violently overthrew the Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007 and relations between the two groups have been tense ever since. The report says Hamas authorities claimed Saturday’s gathering in Khan Younis did not have the requisite permits.

The Times online reports that Western-backed opposition groups in Syria, fighting against the rule of President Assad, have recently taken delivery of advanced anti-tank missiles, which it is thought were supplied by Gulf states. The Telegraph online says that Amnesty International released a report accusing the Assad regime of deliberately starving the residents of the Yarmouk district in Damascus as a military tactic. Meanwhile, the online editions of the Guardian, Independent, Telegraph and Times all report that more than a dozen nuns, who had been abducted by an Islamist opposition groups in Syria, were released yesterday after three months during an apparent prisoner swap with the Syrian government, which reportedly freed a number of female prisoners in return.

In the Israeli media, Israel Hayom leads with the final inventory on board the arms ship which was seized by Israeli naval forces last week. The ship was towed into the southern Israeli port of Eilat carrying 40 long-range Syrian-made rockets, 180 mortar shells and 400,000 bullets, which Israel says Iran was attempting to smuggle into the Gaza Strip. In Yediot Ahronot, Alex Fishman says that Iran has neither given up its nuclear ambitions nor its efforts to aid militant armed groups.

The lead story in Yediot Ahronot and Haaretz focuses on developments over three significant items of legislation scheduled for debate and voting in the Knesset this week. The three bills are: the governability bill, which would increase the parliamentary electoral threshold; the draft bill, which would see the vast majority of ultra-Orthodox students drafted to the military; and the referendum bill, which would require a referendum to approve the transfer of territories under Israeli sovereignty. Coalition factions apparently signed an agreement to treat all three bills as one package to guarantee their passage. Opposition factions released a joint statement in response saying that they would not participate in debates on the bills, given that the result appears a foregone conclusion.

Makor Rishon’s main story is the announcement by Arab League foreign ministers that they reject the Israeli government’s insistence that Israel be recognised as a characteristically Jewish state as a foundation for the two-state solution. The Arab League position is in line with the PA’s refusal to accept one of Israel’s key demands in the context of peace talks.

Israel Radio news reports that financially troubled Maariv was not published today or yesterday and may become a free evening publication.