RAMALLAH, January 2, 2017 (WAFA) – Each of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies focused on a different subject on their Monday front page.
The highlight in al-Hayat al-Jadida was the death of Greek Catholic Archbishop Hilarion Capucci in Rome at age 94.
President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian government as well as various factions and officials mourned Capucci, who was at one time imprisoned by Israel and sentenced to 12 years in jail for assisting the Palestinian resistance but was released into exile in Rome four years later.
Capucci’s death was also reported in the other two dailies.
The main front page story in al-Quds focused on the decisions of the Israeli inner cabinet regarding Hamas prisoners and corpses aimed at pressuring the Islamist movement that controls Gaza to hand over remains of two Israeli soldiers it reportedly has been holding since the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza.
This subject was also reported in the other two dailies.
The highlight in al-Ayyam was the New Year’s Istanbul nightclub massacre. The paper reported on the incident and said at the top corner that President Abbas had condemned the attack. It said a Palestinian woman from the town of al-Tira, inside Israel, was killed in the attack.
This story was also reported in the other dailies.
Other headlines on the front page of the dailies highlighted calls by the Israeli right wing parties to annex Area C of the occupied West Bank, which makes more than 60 per cent of its area and falls under total Israeli military control, as reported in al-Ayyam.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida and al-Quds said a new Jewish settlement outpost was set up near Nablus in the West Bank.
Al-Quds introduced on its front page an interview with Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in which he said that the Palestinian government is working with other organization s to take Israel to the International Criminal Court for its settlement activities in the occupied territories.
The full, page-long interview was published on page 11 of the newspaper in which Hamdallah discussed all issues of relevance and interest to the Palestinians, whether they were political or internal affecting daily life.
The headline for the interview on the inside page talked about rejection of the confederation between Gaza and the West Bank proposed by Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk, which had upset many Palestinians, and that local elections, proposed for last year but postponed by a court order, will be held in stages.
Al-Ayyam had a headline which said: “Hamas security is escalating campaign against Jihadist Salafist groups in the Gaza Strip.”
It quoted whom the paper described as “informed sources” as saying that Hamas security forces arrested a large number of the Jihadists, including leaders, and forced many to go into hiding. No specific figures were given but it said they were in the dozens and the campaign was still ongoing to arrest those who went into hiding.
The paper also said the chairman of the Palestinian National Council Salim Zanoun has called for a two-day meeting in Beirut on January 10 for the preparatory committee to set the stage for convening the next conference for the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
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