RAMALLAH, Wednesday, December 18, 2019 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas’ comments on holding elections dominated the front page headlines in Wednesday’s issue of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies.

President Abbas was reported in the dailies stressing that presidential and legislative elections must be held in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The dailies also reported that Israeli occupation authorities demolished a Palestinian house in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya.

Al-Quds added that Israeli authorities also demolished the house of a Palestinian citizen of Israel in Yaffa.

According to al-Ayyam, two Palestinians were injured from Israeli military gunfire near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem and the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said that a Palestinian man was killed in an Israeli airstrike to the east of Khan Younes city in the eastern besieged Gaza Strip.

Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida said that Israeli settlers vandalized Palestinian construction machines in the northern Jordan Valley.

Highlighting movement restrictions on Palestinians, al-Quds said that Israeli occupation authorities deliberately blocked the road connecting a cluster of Palestinian villages located to the northwest of Jerusalem to Ramallah.

According to al-Quds and al-Ayyam, Chairman of the Qatari Committee for Gaza Reconstruction Mohammad al-Emadi led a delegation of diplomats to the besieged Gaza Strip.

Al-Quds said that a delegation of Hamas officials led by head of political bureau Ismail Haniyeh arrived to Malaysia.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam spotlighted Israeli media report titled Congress Rejects Request for $175 million to Support Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’.

Al-Quds said that Israeli occupation authorities “have tightened the stranglehold” on Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in preparation for the Hanukkah holiday.

It added that Israeli police detained five Palestinian girls from inside the mosque compound.

According to al-Ayyam, three Palestinian women, identified as residents of al-Eizariya town, east of Jerusalem, were detained by Israeli forces while being in Shufat refugee camp.

The dailies spotlighted Human Rights Watch (HRW)’s report Born Without Civil Rights: Israel’s Use of Draconian Military Orders to Repress Palestinians in the West Bank.

HRW was reported in al-Quds commenting on “more than half a century of occupation with no end in sight”.

Al-Quds reported that Hamas military wing, known as al-Qassam Brigades, unveiled a success it has recently achieved in its security and intelligence battle against Israel.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said that the Palestinian and German governments signed a US$ 76 million agreement in support of vital projects in the West Bank and Gaza.

Al-Ayyam highlighted Israeli media report titled Officials Slam Defense Minister: Withholding Bodies Won’t Help Return Israelis Held in Gaza.

According to al-Hayat al-Jadida, Palestine requested the Arab League to convene an urgent meeting to discuss the opening of a trade office for Brazil in Jerusalem.

It said that several Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) officials slam Hamas senior officials Mousa Abu Marzouq’s remarks on elections.

It printed a feature story about the anguish of the mother of a Palestinian detainee, who is currently on hunger strike protesting his illegal imprisonment by Israel.

The story was titled I Anxiously Await each and every Morning to Hear that my Son is Still Breathing- Says Prisoner’s Mother.

Finally, al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Catholic Archbishop of Brazil Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer stating that justice would be achieved unless the Palestinian state is established based on the resolutions of international legitimacy (United Nations resolutions).

K.F.