RAMALLAH, July 22, 2017 (WAFA) – “Friday of rage” was the term the Palestinian dailies published Saturday had dubbed for the mass protests that engulfed East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in protest against the metal detectors Israel had installed outside the gates to Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Three young Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli forces during the day, all in Jerusalem, and hundreds of injuries were reported throughout the Palestinian territories, many shot by live ammunition.
The papers said thousands of Muslim worshippers held the Friday prayers in the streets after they refused to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque through the metal detectors controlled by the Israeli police or after police had set up barricades on all roads leading to the Old City of Jerusalem and banned men under 50 from reaching the Mosque.
Israeli forces attacked the worshippers, most of them elderly people, and dispersed them using all kinds of brute force, including rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas, concussion bombs, beating and often live bullets.
The three papers printed all kinds of pictures of the “Friday of rage.”
As a result of these developments, President Mahmoud Abbas decided to freeze all contacts with Israel, as the papers reported also on their front page, until it removes the metal detectors and return the situation at the Muslim holy place to what it was before.
The papers also said three Israeli settlers were stabbed to death in the illegal settlement of Halamish, near Ramallah, in an apparent revenge act to the developments in Jerusalem and at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
At the same time, fully armed Israeli police raided Makased hospital going after Palestinians injured in the day’s clashes. The hospital, according to the dailies, strongly condemned the brutal police behavior and its disrespect for the mission of the hospital, its staff and patients, who were terrified by the scene of police going through the various hospital wards looking for wounded Palestinians.
In other news, al-Quds said its website was hacked forcing it to cease publication for several hours.
It also said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has called on the Palestinian factions to meet in Cairo or Beirut to discuss the situation following the events at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
It said Palestinian workers are demanding more than $1.5 billion dollars in compensation from their Israeli employers for wages they have not received.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida said the US Congress is planning to submit a bill fining boycotters of Israeli settlement products, deemed illegal under international law, half a million dollars if they support the boycott.
Al-Ayyam said a story of a Christian Palestinian supporting fellow Muslims in their protests against Israeli measures at Al-Aqsa Mosque has dominated the social media.
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