The BBC reports that Israel’s Mossad is suspected of carrying out high-level spying on Iran’s elite forces. Sources inside Tehran’s Evin prison security ward, where those who are accused of spying for foreign countries are held, have told the BBC there have been scores of high-ranking Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) commanders held there. The Iranian government does not publicise their names and ranks to avoid tarnishing the reputation of the IRGC. A former intelligence officer for the IRGC Quds Force (its overseas operations arm) has told the BBC foreign agencies, believed to include the Mossad, have gathered evidence against several Iranian ambassadors and IRGC commanders. It includes information about relationships with women, which he said could be used to blackmail those officials to force them to co-operate with foreign spies.

In the Telegraph, Zoe Strimpel writes that “London’s silence about anti-Semitism is deafening. Indefensible, but unsurprising, it is an enduring feature of our times that the fight against racism, which is taken very seriously indeed, excludes one minority and one minority only: Jews.”

The Guardian publishes an editorial on Amnesty International’s newest report that labels Israel as an “apartheid” state. The paper says: “The continuing subjugation of Palestinians erodes the country’s stature internationally and damages its democracy … such a grave diagnosis of Israel’s situation should be a concern for all those, like this newspaper, who wish for the country to prosper.”

Reuters reports that Iran said the removal of US sanctions is Tehran’s red line in talks with world powers in Vienna to revive the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, adding that talks will resume on Tuesday.

Reuters also reports that a key Palestinian decision-making body convened yesterday for the first time in nearly four years in a session that could be a stepping-stone for two potential successors to 86-year-old Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Central Council last met in 2018, hampered by internal divisions among Palestinians. Hamas turned down an invitation to attend Sunday’s meeting, saying Abbas had to institute power-sharing reforms first.

In the Israeli media, Calcalist provides more details about whose phones were allegedly hacked by the Israel Police following its initial series of reports in mid-January about illegal police use of NSO Pegasus and other spyware against citizens. At least two mayors, Channel Thirteen News CEO Aviram Elad, Ilan Yeshua, the former CEO of Walla and currently a top witness in the trial against Netanyahu, and several former ministry directors general were reported targets of the police, as was the owner and CEO of a major supermarket chain. The spyware was also installed in a phone registered to Avner Netanyahu, as well as Benjamin Netanyahu’s advisers Yonatan Urich and Topaz Luk. Israel Police spokesman Eli Levy said this morning that the police “were not responding to any reports”. He said that since the news first broke, the police have been open “to a full transparent investigation.” Levy claimed that so far there had been “no defect found in the work of police. Everything was done legally with a signed order from the court.” Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked said Monday morning that if the report is true, “it is an earthquake, with actions that are suited to oppressive regimes from a century ago that we cannot emulate”.

Writing in Yediot Ahronot, Nahum Barnea says: “There may have been mishaps, top police officers now admit. Mishaps are only mishaps. But there’s nothing wrong with the policy, there’s nothing wrong with the instructions and there’s nothing wrong with the software. That’s the rule, and everything else is details. We must not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The thing that they have a hard time understanding—and this has happened time and time again, each police commissioner in turn and each minister in turn—is that it is the mishaps that shape public trust in the police. Trust is built via the details. Every individual citizen and his/her own tiny or large police foul-up. The Mossad can operate without public trust, and so can the GSS [Shin Bet]. Those two organisations enshroud themselves in the glory of secrecy that is at their disposal both when they need to and when they don’t. The police can’t do that.”

Maariv follows tensions within the coalition over the citizenship bill that will be voted in the Knesset this week. Yesterday the Cabinet agreed to advance Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked’s citizenship bill and the alternative bill that was introduced by MK Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionist Party. Minister Shaked said: “Two weeks ago, the GSS director himself called me and asked me what was happening with the citizenship bill. It’s no secret that there is a very serious trend in the Negev of women who come from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and raise families that have ties to the PA. Forty per cent of the people who were arrested in the recent riots were from such families. This is an important bill from both a security aspect and from a national aspect and it preserves the status quo—no more and no less.” The House Committee chaired by MK Nir Orbach (Yamina) will meet today to discuss the cabinet’s request to move up the Knesset session to vote on the citizenship bill in all the readings and on merging the government’s bill with Rothman’s private bill.

Despite Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz telling the cabinet yesterday that the citizenship bill “is a deal-breaker that will have consequences for the future”, Israel Hayom’s Matti Tuchfeld remarks this morning that Meretz and the other centre-left parties have implicitly given their consent to the legislation. He writes: “Between the lines of their statements against the bill, and after calling it ‘racist’ and ‘loathsome,’ they effectively green-lighted the bill after it became clear that none of them would topple the government over this issue. At most they can threaten to vote down a bill that the government wants in revenge. The government can cope with that, as long as it can continue to serve.”

Israel Hayom also reports that an internal Shin Bet document that was presented to the Cabinet yesterday claimed that Hamas deliberately marks Arab citizens of Israel who have one parent who was born either in Gaza or in the West Bank as candidates for recruitment either to carry out acts of terrorism or to collect intelligence. The unclassified data pertain to a series of belligerent Palestinian acts within Israel in the years 2020-2021, up until Operation Guardian of the Walls. The acts in question were either actual acts of terrorism or acts to gather intelligence on behalf of Hamas. In some cases, these acts were committed while fighting against Hamas was underway.

Kan Radio reports that senior Health officials have admitted that the load on the hospitals due to the rising COVID rate caused unnecessary deaths of patients, and not just affecting the quality of medical care. More than 630 people died from Covid in the last two weeks, an average of 45 a day. “If we had more staff we could save lives”, they said. A few weeks ago, the hospitals were promised an addition of 45 beds in intensive care units—a drop in the bucket considering their needs—but that promise has yet to be kept. Health Ministry officials said that the matter was being worked on. The number of people hospitalised in serious condition is 1,255 – a new record. However, the infection rate continues to drop, and on Saturday 33,000 people tested positive.

Haaretz follows the expected appointment of Gali Baharav-Miara today as attorney general, the first woman in this position. Baharav-Miara was the Tel Aviv attorney general for civilian affairs and worked in the private sector in the last few years. Justice Minister Gideon Saar and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett endorsed her from among the three candidates submitted by the search committee.