RAMALLAH, Friday, January 10, 2020 (WAFA) – The latest spate of Palestinian structure demolitions across the occupied West Bank and the Israeli announcement on the development of plans for the effective annexation of West Bank Area C dominated the front page headlines in Friday’s issue of the dailies.

The dailies reported that Israeli occupation authorities dismantled and seized a shack on the main access road to Ras Karkar village, located to the west of Ramallah.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida added that Israeli occupation authorities forced two Palestinians from Jerusalem to demolish their own houses in Jabal al-Mukabbir, displacing their families composed of 15 members.

While structure demolitions featured as the main news item in al-Ayyam  and al-Hayat al-Jadida, the Israeli plan for the effective annexation of Area C, which accounts for 60 percent of the occupied West Bank, hit the front page headlines in al-Quds.

Al-Quds printed a headline reading: Following are the details of Israeli ‘Defence’ Minister Naftali Bennett’s plan to consolidate Israeli occupation’s sovereignty over Area C.

It elaborated that the plan would allow settlers to seize privately owned Palestinian land, construct more colonial settlements and legitimize unauthorized colonial settlement outposts.

The plan would also allow settlers to privately purchase land in the West Bank, and prevent the demolition of settler units.

The dailies spotlighted international condemnations of Israel’s plans to expand its colonial settlements.

The European Union (EU) was reported in al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida urging Israel to “fully comply with international law” and “end all settlement activity on occupied territories”.

The EU was also reported calling on Israel to stop and prevent “violence by settlers on Palestinian civilians and their property.”

It was also reported stressing that it “will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem, ]other than those agreed by both sides[.”

Al-Hayat al-Jadida also reported the Palestinian government and various political factions slamming Bennett’s remarks on the expansion of colonial settlements as a war crime.

Al-Ayyam reported spokesperson for German Foreign Affairs Ministry slamming the construction of Israeli colonial settlements in the Palestinian territories as “illegal under international law and as a major obstacle to the possibility of a two-state solution.”

The dailies said that classes at Birzeit University are scheduled to resume on Saturday, January 11, following a conflict that paralyzed academic life at the university campus.

According to the dailies, President Mahmoud Abbas received the winners of Palestine’s Literature, Arts and Humanities Award.

The dailies said that Israeli forces conducted multiple raids across the West Bank, resulting in the detention of eight Palestinians.

Al-Quds printed a feature about the so-called Hilltop Youth, a group of young devoutly religious Israeli settlers who have gained international notoriety for being on the vanguard of Palestinian dispossession and racism.

The title of the feature storey read: The “Hilltop Youth” paves the way to the annexation by Israel of 1.25 million dunams of Palestinian land in the Jordan Valley.

The Palestinian Health Ministry was reported in al-Ayyam announcing that five people have died in Palestine of H1N1 flu virus since the start of the winter season in September.

Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat was reported in al-Ayyam that the presidential decree on elections will not be issued until Israel pledges not to obstruct elections in Jerusalem.

Member of the Fatah Central Committee Azzam al-Ahmad was reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida stating that the PLO Executive Committee was in permanent session to confront the challenges and noting that PLO’s seriousness to hold elections.

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vu?i? was reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida reiterating his country’s firm position on the Question of Palestine and support to the two-state solution.

It said that Serbia has decided to exempt holders of Palestinian diplomatic passport from entry visa and increase the scholarships to Palestinians to nine.

Regionally, al-Quds said that Israel was set today to release Sidqi al-Maqt, a Syrian prisoner who was sentenced in 2017 for spying and contacting a foreign agent.

K.F.