The BBC,  Daily Mail  and Reuters report that Palestinian medics say three teenage boys have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southeastern Gaza Strip. The Daily Mail reports that Ashraf al-Kidra of the Gaza Health Ministry says ambulance crews brought the bodies of the boys, aged 12 to 14, to a hospital from the perimeter fence dividing Gaza and Israel. The Israeli army said an aircraft hit three Palestinians who approached the security fence Sunday “and were apparently involved in placing” an explosive device to it. Reuters reports that Israel says its lethal response is necessary to prevent armed infiltrations from Gaza. The violence has occasionally escalated into shelling exchanges that Israel has warned could trigger war, while Egypt and the UN have repeatedly mediated truces.

Business Insider via AP reports that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is accusing Hamas rivals of serving US interests by refusing to relinquish control of the Gaza Strip. Abbas fears the US is planning a proposal that would offer the Palestinians limited statehood in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and some autonomy in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Abbas demands full independence in both territories. In a speech on Monday, Abbas said that Hamas’s refusal to give up control of Gaza is “accepting the thoughts of the enemy, who plans to have a mini state in Gaza and autonomy in West Bank”.

Stephen Daisley writes in the Independent that “Hamas, a terrorist organisation, has been fomenting disorder in Gaza for months now, a function of its viral victims strategy: provoke the Israel Defence Forces into retaliating and let images of dead Palestinians zip their way onto every smartphone on the planet. If only Hamas put that kind of ingenuity into governing, Gaza might not have a 44 per cent unemployment rate”.

Business Insider via AP report that the office of a senior Israeli Cabinet minister says he will travel to Oman next week, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Gulf state. Yisrael Katz will participate in an international transportation conference to share his proposal for building a rail link between Israel and Arab Gulf countries. Israel and Oman on Friday confirmed Netanyahu’s trip to Oman, the first such visit by an Israeli leader in 22 years. Israel and Oman do not have formal diplomatic relations. Netanyahu frequently boasts of warming behind-the-scenes ties with Arab countries. In another sign of those ties, Israel’s sports minister is in the United Arab Emirates for an international judo competition.

The Independent, Evening Standard and Daily Mail report on the aftermath of the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The Independent reports that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said he was “heartbroken and appalled by the murderous attack” after a gunman killed at least 11 people and injured six others during religious services.  “The entire people of Israel grieve with the families of the dead,” he said in a video message posted to Twitter after the massacre.  “We stand together with the Jewish community of Pittsburgh, we stand together with the American people in the face of this horrendous antisemitic brutality, and we all pray for the speedy recovery of the wounded.” The Evening Standard reports that the man suspected of killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue has been named and charged with 11 counts of using a firearm to commit murder. Six people, including four police officers, were also wounded during the shooting at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighbourhood. The Daily Mail reports that Israel paid tribute to the victims of Saturday’s massacre with messages of solidarity. Projected images on the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City showed the Israeli and American flags side by side with the caption, ‘We are with you, Pittsburgh!’

The FT and Reuters report on the major effect from US President Donald Trump’s Iran sanctions. The FT reports that the EU has struggled to find a member state to host a new financial channel to shield trade with Iran from looming US sanctions, diplomats said, in the latest hurdle to the bloc’s efforts to save a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran. The Europeans want to set up a “special purpose vehicle” to process Iran’s import and export payments once Washington clamps down on the country’s central bank and oil industry on 5 November. The US action is part of an economic squeeze on Tehran after President Trump pulled out of the 2015 international accord in May. EU countries led by France, Germany and the UK — signatories to the nuclear deal — want to enable non-US trade with Iran to continue in defiance of Washington. Reuters reports that shortly after President Trump announced in May he would reimpose sanctions on Iran, the State Department began telling countries around the world the clock was ticking for them to cut oil purchases from the Islamic Republic to zero. The strategy is meant to cripple Iran’s oil-dependent economy and force Tehran to quash not only its nuclear ambitions, but this time, its ballistic missile programme and its influence in Syria. With just days to go before renewed sanctions take effect, the reality is setting in: three of Iran’s top five customers – India, China, and Turkey – are resisting Washington’s call to end purchases outright, arguing there are not sufficient supplies worldwide to replace them, according to sources familiar with the matter. That pressure, along with worries of a damaging oil price spike, is putting the Trump administration’s hard line to the test and raising the possibility of bilateral deals to allow some buying to continue, according to the sources.

Edward Lucas writes in The Times in an article titled ‘Don’t vilify Iran while sucking up to the Saudis.’ He argues Britain “should make it clear to the princely potentates in Riyadh that we have other options, and to the Iranian leadership that détente is possible and welcome. European countries are already getting ready to sidestep renewed US sanctions with a special-purpose vehicle, in effect a bank, which will allow European companies to do business with Iran without having any contact with dollars or the US financial system. Such efforts deserve our support too. Our behaviour encourages the Saudis to treat us with contempt, as the story of an exiled Saudi dissident, Ghanem al-Dosari, attacked in central London on August 31, exemplifies. Video footage of the incident shows Dosari being punched. When an English friend intervenes, the attackers say: “F*** London, the Queen is our slave.” They later tried to bribe the friend not to give a witness statement, with one of them saying: “I’m speaking on behalf of his royal highness, the police will not show up. We can arrange for anything. This is London, it belongs to us.” Self-respect, as well as self-interest, suggest that we show them it doesn’t.”

The Independent and Reuters report that the Saudi public prosecutor heading the investigation into the killing of Jamal Khashoggi arrived in Istanbul overnight, the state-owned Anadolu news agency said on Monday, ahead of expected talks with the Istanbul chief prosecutor. President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey values the outcome of the talks between the two prosecutors. The timing of their meeting was not immediately clear. Anadolu said the Saudi prosecutor would also inspect the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where Khashoggi was killed three weeks ago.

The Express reports that Khashoggi was about to disclose details of Saudi Arabia’s use of chemical weapons in Yemen, sources close to him said last night. The revelations come as separate intelligence sources disclosed that Britain had first been made aware of a plot a full three weeks before he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The FT reports that the killing of Khashoggi in Istanbul has sent a chilling message to Arab government critics struggling to survive under autocratic regimes. For many activists and opposition politicians, the journalist’s death is another sign of a crackdown by rulers determined to prevent a repeat of the 2011 Arab uprisings, which had raised hopes of a new democratic dawn. Rulers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to Bahrain and Egypt — which were shaken by the challenges to their authority seven years ago — have targeted critics with increasingly autocratic measures. In Egypt and Bahrain, authorities have arrested thousands of opponents, restricting the press and ensuring that dissent carries a heavy price tag. Many of those who challenge the status quo in Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been arrested amid an assault on freedom of expression. Mindful of the role social media played in fanning the uprisings, a battery of laws aimed at controlling cyber space has been imposed across the region. “The killing of Khashoggi is frightening because it shows how far repressive regimes can go,” said Khaled al-Balshy, an Egyptian editor of one of hundreds of websites blocked by the Cairo authorities. “People in the past imagined that there were limits to repression.”

The Telegraph reports that trade relations between the UK and Saudi Arabia stretch back more than 60 years, and one of the key elements is the British defence industry’s ready supply of weapons and military expertise to Middle Eastern state. However, the murder of journalist Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate earlier this month has raised questions over the future of the multi-billion-pound arrangement.

The Independent reports that Professional wrestling body WWE has defended its controversial decision to hold an event in Saudi Arabia despite the recent murder of Khashoggi.  WWE announced earlier this week that it would go ahead with its Crown Jewel event on 2 November at King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, despite pleas from fans and critics for the company to boycott the kingdom.

The Israeli media is dominated by stories about the the Pittsburgh synagogue attack. Kan radio news reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke last night with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and told him that all Jewish people are in mourning with the families of those killed.  Netanyahu wrote in a condolence letter to the Jewish community in Pennsylvania that antisemitism has re-emerged over the past few decades as a powerful and deadly force and that the despicable crime in Pittsburgh was the worst antisemitic attack in the history of the US. He expressed support for President Trump for his unequivocal condemnation of the despicable crime and for his commitment to fighting those who try to destroy the Jewish people.

Yediot Ahronot reflects, “To our horror, it turns out that Jews in the US are also under threat because they are Jews. Furthermore, the massacre at the synagogue in Pittsburgh was the deadliest antisemitic incident in the US since the country was founded. So it makes sense that it would really undermine American Jews’ sense of security, which had become very stable over the last half-century and more.”

Maariv notes the “shocking massacre in Pittsburgh reminded President Trump that there is antisemitism in the United States. The murder of the Jews in the synagogue jogged Prime Minister Netanyahu’s memory that there is a Jewish community in Pittsburgh. The funerals of the 11 murdered Jews reminded Diaspora Minister Naftali Bennett that there is a Jewish Diaspora in Pittsburgh. There is no suspicion that President Trump’s condemnation was not real. His instructions to lower US flags to half-mast is a moving gesture to the Jewish community. The words of consolation that Netanyahu sent to the families of those killed touched the hearts of all the listeners. Bennett’s decision to fly in and attend the funerals expresses a deep sense of sharing in the profound grief of the community.” But the paper criticises the Prime Minister for “consistently distancing himself from any connection with the leaders of the Jewish community,” Minister Bennett for not taking “any special steps to promote relations with Jewish communities” and “in Trump’s two years in office, the phenomenon of antisemitism in America, which up until now was only on the very fringes of society, had become widespread because of extremists who feel comfortable expressing their hatred of Jews”.

After the violence on the Gaza border over the weekend, Yediot Ahronot reports dozens of residents from Southern Israel travelled to Tel Aviv by bus last night, and with the permission of the police they intermittently blocked a central intersection opposite the Israeli military’s HQ. They shouted “Red Colour alert” and lay on the road and covered their heads, to illustrate the routine of their lives. They also called on the government to take action to restore quiet and held up protest signs against government policy, which they claimed was not doing enough.

All the papers report that Israeli Judo champion Sagi Muki won a gold medal in Abu Dhabi. Israel Hayom prominently quotes Muki saying “we are on the map, in Abu Dhabi and everywhere”. Maariv declares “Israeli Judo’s great hope comes true”.  Yediot Ahronot focuses on the Israel national anthem “Hativka” being played for the first time ever in Abu Dhabi.

Reflecting on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Oman, Ronen Bergman in Yediot Ahronot writes: “Qaboos wants to show the West a different face, a liberal and tolerant face. Netanyahu’s visit was scheduled before the Khashoggi assassination, but that horrific incident certainly only reinforced Oman’s need to show that it was about something else completely. The potential benefit for Israel from this visit is three-fold. First, Oman serves as a mediator between many countries and is accepted by all—including Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Russia—as an honest broker. Israel will be able to establish a secret line of communication with any country it wants to via Oman. Obviously, that is contingent on the consent of the counterpart in question, but achieving that goal will be far easier under Qaboos’s patronage. One senior Israeli official said that he “couldn’t rule out the possibility of using Oman to engage in a secret dialogue with Iran and Syria. Second, the hope is that other countries will muster the courage and seek out ties with Israel as well. And, third, from Netanyahu’s perspective the public exposure of Israel’s ties with Oman is another component of his Middle Eastern strategy of creating secret—and also apparently open—alliances with moderate Sunni countries and organizations, with the goal of stopping Iranian expansion and downgrading its power in the region, while also proving that normalization can be achieved even without first resolving the Palestinian problem.”