The BBC, Independent and Telegraph report that the US has closed its Consulate General in Jerusalem, which covered Palestinian affairs, folding its operations into the new embassy to Israel in the city. The BBC reports that the State Department said the merger was made for efficiency reasons and did not signal a change of policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank or Gaza. The Consulate had acted as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians. A Palestinian official called the move “the last nail in the coffin of the US administration’s role in peacemaking”. On Monday, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino said the merger had taken effect and promised “complete continuity of US diplomatic activity and consular services”. The Independent reports that speaking on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Dr Hanan Ashwari said: “The Trump Administration is intent on leaving no room for doubt about its hostility towards the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights as well as its abject disregard for international law and its obligations under the law. Merging the US Consulate in Jerusalem with the US Embassy to Israel, which is now illegally located in Jerusalem, is not an administrative decision. It is an act of political assault on Palestinian rights and identity and a negation of the Consulate’s historic status and function, dating back nearly two hundred years.” She added: “The US administration is subsuming Palestine under Israel and aligning itself with the racist Israeli right, which negates Palestinian identity, history, narrative and national rights. It is positioning itself with rogue states that have no regard for international law or respect for the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, a founding principle of the international order as we know it.”

The Times and Telegraph report that scores of jihadists have surrendered and left Islamic State’s last territory in Syria after one of the most intensive bombardments of a US-backed campaign to end the caliphate. The Times reports that about 150 fighters and 250 civilians boarded trucks sent into Baghuz by Kurdish forces encircling the last patch of territory held by the jihadists. On Friday the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) insisted there were no civilians in Baghuz, only hardened jihadists. Yesterday they halted airstrikes to let more escape. “We’re slowing the offensive in Baghuz due to a small number of civilians held as human shields by Daesh,” Mustafa Bali, the SDF spokesman, said. “The battle to retake the last ISIS holdout is going to be over soon.” Tens of thousands of women and children who escaped ISIS territory are now being housed in giant camps while fighters have been sent to Kurdish-run prisons. The fates of foreigners who left their homes to join ISIS, including Shamima Begum, the British teenager, are the subject of debate between the Kurds and their countries of origins.

The Independent reports that hundreds of ISIS prisoners have been released from jail in Syria, after Kurdish authorities holding them said that they had “no blood on their hands”. Some 283 Syrians suspected of being ISIS members were released by the Syrian Democratic Forces over the weekend as a gesture of “cooperation, fraternity and clemency,” the group said in a statement. The move was reportedly negotiated with tribal leaders from northeast Syria, many of whom have played a key role in the fight against ISIS as part of the joint Arab-Kurdish SDF. “They had lost their way … violated the traditions of the Syrian society and the law, and some of them had been deceived … but they remain our Syrian children,” the statement said. The group said those released were not involved in fighting, but may have held administrative positions within the group. The SDF did not reply to The Independent’s request for comment.

The Telegraph reports that a Royal Navy warship has seized more than two tons of hashish, in its sixth drugs haul of recent months while tackling traffickers in the Arabian Sea. HMS Dragon is believed to have set a Royal Navy record for drugs capture in the region with a string of major heroin and hashish hauls. The drugs captured over several weeks of counter narcotics patrols are estimated to be worth more than £150m in total, and to weigh in at more than 15 tons. The Type-45 air defence destroyer has been targeting maritime smugglers’ routes running from the Makran coast of Iran and Pakistan, down to Yemen and East Africa.

The BBC reports that the award-winning Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid, who is widely known as Shawkan, has been released after five years in prison. Shawkan was arrested in 2013 while covering a deadly crackdown by security forces on a sit-in by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi. Last September he was convicted in a mass trial and handed a five-year jail sentence, which he had already served. Amnesty International said he was detained solely for doing his job. “Mahmoud Abou Zeid’s long overdue release brings to an end a painful ordeal for him and his family,” Najia Bounaim, the human rights group’s Middle East and North Africa director, said on Monday. “As a prisoner of conscience, he should never have been forced to spend a single minute behind bars – let alone five-and-a-half years.” Bounaim added that he still faced “outrageous” probation measures that would require him to spend 12 hours of each day at a police station – from 18:00 to 06:00 – for the next five years. Shawkan, who was awarded the 2018 Unesco/Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize, vowed to continue working as a photojournalist despite the restrictions.

The Financial Times reports that the Netherlands has recalled its ambassador in Iran after Tehran expelled two Dutch diplomats in an escalating spat between the two nations over an alleged assassination plot. Stef Blok, the Dutch Foreign Minister, on Monday said his government had also summoned Iran’s envoy in The Hague to explain the “unacceptable” order to expel the Dutch diplomats from the country. The pair are now safely back in the Netherlands after the order was given on February 20, said Blok. Iranian-Dutch diplomatic relations have deteriorated after the Netherlands accused the Islamic Republic of orchestrating two political assassinations of Dutch nationals of Iranian origin on Dutch soil. Tehran has denied any involvement.

In the Financial Times, Chloe Cornish writes that Iraq’s baby boom is exacerbating bleak prospects for the nation’s youth. Child marriage, says Cornish, is contributing to a fast growing population, whilst 40 per cent of young people are jobless.

The Times reports that it is claimed, the body of the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi may have been burnt in a specially constructed tandoori oven at the home of the Saudi Arabian Consul-General in Istanbul. The oven, in the Consul-General’s garden, was built before Khashoggi’s visit to the nearby consulate in October, the worker who constructed it told Al Jazeera in a documentary investigating his death. He said the tandoor-style oven was made to specifications from the Consul-General, who required it to be deep and able to burn at temperatures above 1,000C, hot enough to melt metal.

The Telegraph reports that Google is refusing to remove a Saudi government app that allows men to track and control women. The app, which gives men the power to grant and rescind travel permission for women and to set up SMS alerts for when they use their passports, will remain available to buy. Google said it had reviewed the app — called Absher — and concluded that it did not violate any agreements, and could therefore remain on its Google Play store. The app, which is owned and operated by the kingdom’s interior ministry, also has features that send alerts if a woman leaves a certain area – making it difficult for women to leave without the say so of a “male guardian”.

The Independent reports that rights groups have demanded the United Arab Emirates grant them immediate access to an Emirati princess, one year on from her alleged capture by the authorities while she was trying to escape the country. Sheikha Latifa, 33 the daughter of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has not publicly spoken since she was apparently forcibly returned to Dubai and disappeared for nine months last year, after she was detained at sea while trying to flee to Goa, India. She has only been seen once since then, when she appeared in photographs taken in Dubai during a visit by Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Exactly one year on from Latifa’s dramatic capture at sea, rights groups told the Independent they were deeply concerned about her welfare and still had no knowledge of what happened to her between her March 2018 capture and December when she reappeared in Dubai. Pleas to the UAE for an independent delegation to be granted access to the royal to assess her, have gone unanswered. “Human Rights Watch is still calling for her to be able to travel to a third country where we and other monitors can be assured she is able to speak freely and independently without fear of retaliation,” Hiba Zayadin of HRW told the newspaper.

Reuters reports that according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was not informed about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s trip to Tehran last week and that was a reason why he submitted his resignation. The news agency cited Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi as the source of the information in its report. President Hassan Rouhani rejected Zarif’s resignation last Wednesday, bolstering a moderate ally who has long been targeted by hardliners in factional struggles over the 2015 nuclear deal with the West. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not have information at any level (about the trip) and this lack of information was maintained until the end of the trip,” Qassemi said, according to ISNA. The news agency added: “One of the reasons for the resignation of Dr. Zarif was this type of lack of coordination with the ministry of foreign affairs. And as it has been announced before, the resignation of the honourable minister was not a private and individual issue and the goal and intent of that was a positive effort to return the ministry of foreign affairs and the diplomatic system of the country to its main place.”

In the Israeli media Haaretz and Yediot Ahronot lead with warnings that despite Israel’s efforts to avoid a clash with the Palestinians at almost any cost on the eve of elections—one could nevertheless erupt. Yediot Ahronot notes: “A number of factors have contributed to the situation. Let’s start with Gaza. The number of incidents has been on the rise—both night-time border clashes that include explosive charges that are both a nuisance to the Gaza periphery residents and endanger the troops, and a rising number of incendiary balloons. Hamas has not made do with incendiary balloons, and has also begun to use an ever-increasing number of balloons carrying explosive charges. The volume has been so high that it has forced the IDF to respond.” The paper also notes, that the situation is heating up in the West Bank as well. “The vehicle ramming attack before dawn yesterday west of Ramallah was unusual: there were three Palestinian terrorists in the vehicle—not one. The IDF and the GSS say that they had been involved earlier in throwing firebombs on Route 433. A company commander and a Border Police combatant were injured. T. Clashes also erupted yesterday between security forces and Palestinian demonstrators in the Beit El area.” In a third sector, “tension is also on the rise in Israeli prisons…the IDF and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan are in disagreement over the project to jam cell phone communications in prisons that house Palestinian security prisoners…. The IDF presented its position on Thursday and asked not to jam cellular communications temporarily lest that escalate tensions. But that decision may not be the right one, even if the IDF’s concerns prove to be well-founded. Erdan’s decision is correct, since at issue are terrorists who are not even permitted to have cell phones. Moreover, it is self-evident that they are using those telephones to direct terrorist activity from inside prison. That has to be stopped, and Israel mustn’t project weakness.”

Channel 13 news reports that despite Hamas effort, Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen has been trying to prevent terror attacks in the West Bank, not for love of Israel but for fear that Hamas might topple him from power if it continues to operate on the ground. The report reveals that some Fatah members want to join Hamas’s effort, while simultaneously trying to preserve Fatah’s rule in the West Bank. Abu Mazen has said that if they do decide to collaborate with Hamas that will ultimately be to Fatah’s own detriment.

All the media report Likud’s campaign launch. Yediot Ahronot and Israel Hayom highlight the handshake between Netanyahu and Gidon Saar, with the Prime Minister saying, “it’s time to work together for victory.” Maariv notes that over and over, Netanyahu used the catch phrases that have become mandatory for Likud figures: “weak left” and “Bibi or Tibi.” The paper quotes the Prime Minister, “There are no scripts, protocols or focus groups here,” he said. “And do you know why? Because we talk from the heart. I don’t follow scripts that were put into my mouth. We have to win because of our path, because of our faith. We have to win because of all of our tremendous achievements that have put us in the best situation in our history…..In the very same years that we were building Israel as a global force, the left wing warned of diplomatic isolation. A tsunami.  It advocated a path of weakness, of concessions, of submission. That is their recipe, not ours. We followed a completely different path. A path of honour and might, of national pride and great spirit. The result is a diplomatic flourish as never before in Israel’s history. What isolation? On some days, I meet in the morning with a leader from overseas, I meet with a second before noon, and in the afternoon, I meet with a third.  Our path has brought the world to us. It is bringing us closer to the Arab world, as you saw in the historic visit to Oman. I was at a conference with six Arab foreign ministers in Warsaw. We talked, we didn’t hide. And an important Arab minister talked about Israel’s right to self-defence.”

Channel 12 news reports on a clash within the right wing. Despite the leaders of the New Right, Bennett and Shaked committing not to attack rivals on the right wing, their number three Alona Barkat was recorded telling activists that the Jewish Home was a racist party run by small men. The backdrop to her comments was a campaign by the Jewish Home last week criticising football matches on Shabbat. Alona Barkat is the owner of Hapoel Beer Sheva.

Maariv reports sources in United Torah Judaism (UTJ), the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox party, said in closed-door meetings that if Netanyahu were unable to form the next coalition government, they would not automatically rule out joining a Gantz-led government. “We have no problem with Gantz. Our problem is with Lapid,” said one MK. “If Gantz announces that the alternating leadership agreement with Lapid is cancelled, the option of entering a government under his leadership will exist. Provided, of course, they accept the red lines that are important to us.” The paper also quotes MK Uri Maklev (UTJ): “We aren’t discussing that now. That isn’t on our agenda now, but everything has significance. We’re currently focused on strengthening the right-wing bloc.” The paper includes a response from the Blue and White Party, “The alternating leadership agreement will be honoured. We will win and we will invite all of the Zionist parties to join a broad and stately government.”

Kan news reports that the Central Elections Committee will meet today to discuss requests to disqualify candidates and lists. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit told the committee yesterday that there was no impediment to letting Tal Russo, who is second on the Labour Party list, run in the elections.