RAMALLAH, Tuesday, December 10, 2019 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas’ announcement on elections dominated the front page headlines in Tuesday’s issue of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies.

President Abbas was reported in the dailies announcing that elections will be held after an agreement was reached with all factions.

He was also reported in al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida stressing that elections would not be held if Israel bars East Jerusalem Palestinians from voting inside the city.

He was also reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida slamming the US-Israeli field hospital to be set up in the northern besieged Gaza Strip.

He was also reported warning Israel against annexing the Jordan Valley, noting that if it goes ahead with the move, the Palestinian Authority would cancel all agreements with it.

The vandalism of some 180 Palestinian vehicles in Jerusalem also hit the front page headlines in the dailies.

The dailies said that Israeli settlers slashed the tires of 189 Palestinian vehicles and sprayed anti-Arab racist graffiti in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Shufat.

Al-Quds added in this regard that the neighborhood residents hold the Israeli occupation authorities responsible for the act of vandalism, and that the Shufat Council discussed with Palestinian factions the possibility of reviving the guard or vigilance committees.

According to the dailies, the Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDEC) received the third warning from the Israeli Electricity Company that the latter would disconnect electricity from the former’s franchise areas starting from December 15.

The dailies said that Israeli military razed scores of dunams of Palestinian farmlands in Beit Ummar and Kafr Laqif towns, located to the north of Hebron city and southwest of Nablus city respectively.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam said that Israeli bulldozers demolished a shack in Beit Ummar town.

According to al-Hayat al-Jadida, Israeli forces rounded up 10 Palestinians in multiple overnight raids across the West Bank.

The dailies highlighted confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli troops in Bab Az-Zawiya area in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

Dozens of Palestinians suffocated from tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers during the confrontations, al-Quds noted.

The dailies said that Palestinians staged a general strike in the Palestinian city of Hebron, protesting Israel’s plan to bulldoze antique vegetable market in the heart of the city build colonial settlement units.

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn was reported in the dailies pushing for all member states of the European Union (EU) to recognize the State of Palestine.

Al-Ayyam added in this regard that the EU has agreed to Luxembourg’s proposal to hold discussion on a collective recognition of the State of Palestine.

The dailies said that Israeli occupation authorities handed Jerusalem Governor Adnan Ghaith, also written Gheith, an order banning him from engaging in any activities and meetings in Jerusalem for six months.

Al-Quds reported sources close to the Islamic Jihad movement revealing that the movement rejects a long-term truce with Israel, and that its leaders were allowed to travel to Iran.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam reported Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit’s office warning Premier Benjamin Netanyahu that annexing the Jordan Valley could spur an international criminal investigation of senior army officers, civil service officials and heads of regional councils of West Bank settlements.

The original report appeared in Israeli media under the title West Bank Annexation Indefensible at International Criminal Court, Top Legal Advisor Warns Netanyahu.

The dailies spotlighted the Palestinian cabinet’s decision to commence procedures to operating the Turkish Hospital in Gaza.

The cabinet was also reported hailing the hailing the US Congress Resolution 326 opposing Israeli colonial settlements and annexation in the West Bank.

It was also reported in al-Ayyam expressing support to the recent understandings reached with the Jerusalem District Electricity Company with the purpose of solving the financial crisis gripping the latter.

Al-Ayyam printed an opinion piece on the second anniversary of US President Donald Trump’s decision recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The piece appeared under the title Two Years after Trump’s Decision on Jerusalem, the US is Isolated and the International Community Refuses to Respond to it.

Finally, al-Hayat al-Jadida said that General Supervisor of the Official Media Minister Ahmad Assaf handed a report on the Israeli crimes against Palestinian official media outlets and journalists to the International Federation of Journalists.

K.F.