The Mail Online reports that Israeli officials threatened yesterday to pull out of hosting the first stage of the Giro d’Italia cycling race after organisers referred to the race as starting in “West Jerusalem”. Currently the first day of the 101^st edition of the race, set for 4 May 2018, will take place in what the Mail Online calls “the western sector of Jerusalem,” the first time the race has started outside of Europe.

The Mail Online also reports that Israel is to appoint a new Ambassador to Jordan in a bid to calm Amman’s anger over the current Ambassador’s handling of a shooting by an Embassy guard, after he was stabbed by an assailant wielding a screwdriver.

BBC News Online, FT and the Telegraph report that Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has given the Egyptian military three months to restore “security and stability” to the Sinai peninsula, after an attack on a mosque on Friday that left 305 people dead.

The Mail Online reports that Israel has eased restrictions on US-bound Gazan travellers.

BBC News Online and the Guardian report the story of the 24-year-old British man who has been killed fighting ISIS in Syria. Oliver Hall, from the Portsmouth area, was killed fighting alongside the Kurdish YPG on 25 November.

The Guardian reports that Prime Minister Theresa May is to outline her post-Brexit vision for the UK in the Middle East during her three-day tour of the region. She will set out her plan in a major speech in Jordan, outlining both UK efforts to combat ISIS and wider, long-term help on economic and social reforms. May made a secret trip to Iraq yesterday and met Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

BBC News Online reports that the International Red Cross is buying 750,000 litres of diesel fuel to help pump clean water for a million people living in Yemen. Nine cities have run out of clean water this month because of the blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition.

The Times reports that new tests have shown that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was constructed in the period of the Emperor Constantine, 300 years after the crucifixion, bolstering the credibility of the location.

The FT reports that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces may soon realise that “successes battling ISIS may soon feel like the easy part. Ruling Arab regions could prove harder – and their ability to do so will be crucial to preventing a resurgence of the jihadi group that Western powers and regional forces spent years trying crush”.

Israel Hayom leads with the compromise that means Israel’s Ambassador to Jordan will be replaced.  As a result, the paper assesses that the four-month crisis in Israel-Jordan relations is close to an end.

Haaretz and Yediot Ahronot report the clashes between Israeli security forces and settlers at the settlement outpost in Netiv Haavot yesterday.  Troops demolished a carpentry workshop, one of 17 buildings in the outpost that have to be demolished by March 2018, in keeping with a High Court of Justice ruling.

All the Israeli papers note that after months of trying, Israeli Police detectives were finally able to question James Packer, an Australian billionaire who allegedly gave expensive gifts to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife. He was questioned by Australian detectives in coordination with the Israel Fraud Squad Unit.  According to Yediot Ahronot, “now that they have succeeded in obtaining Packer’s statement, the police intend to step up the pace of their work in hope of completing their investigation within the next two weeks and to submit their recommendations before the new recommendations bill is passed into legislation and becomes effective.”

The Knesset Interior Committee is making final preparations for the recommendations bill’s second and third readings on Monday. Yediot Ahronot reports about the balance of power in the upcoming vote, which currently will allow the coalition to pass the bill even if four wavering coalition MKs ultimately choose to vote against it. Maariv reports that Zionist Union Faction Chairman Yoel Hasson has imposed restrictions on the faction MKs, cancelling all travel plans for next week and forbidding them from pairing with coalition MKs who are to be absent from the vote. Yediot Ahronot also notes the decision of the Knesset’s legal adviser that Netanyahu and Welfare Minister Haim Katz are not allowed to vote due to a conflict of interest that they are already under investigation.  Neither voted in the first reading earlier this week.

Israel Hayom and Yediot Ahronot report that three terrorists convicted of the murder of four Israelis in a shooting attack at the Sarona Market in June 2016 were given four life sentences and an additional 60 years each. They opened fire in the Max Brenner café in Tel Aviv using makeshift Carl Gustav rifles.  Both papers also noted yesterday, in a separate case, that another attacker was sentenced to a 30-year prison term for a brutal axe attack severely wounding a 48-year-old unarmed security guard in a Maale Adumim shopping centre in February 2016. After being in a coma for three weeks, the victim miraculously survived.

Channel Two and Channel Ten News both report that Coalition Chairman MK David Bitan is expected to be questioned under caution in the near future, in connection to allegations of criminal wrongdoing while he served as a senior official in the Rishon Lezion municipality.

Kan Radio News reveals that the IDF is changing the physical fitness training of its combat soldiers in order to make it better suited for combat in Lebanon. One decision made was to set up a new physical-exertion scale for carrying heavy equipment and running in mountainous terrain. There will also be more training in navigation and hand-to-hand combat.