RAMALLAH, Thursday, January 16, 2020 (WAFA) – The latest round of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and the creation of new ‘nature reserves’ in the occupied West Bank as part of Israel’s efforts to consolidate its colonialist control on the area dominated the front page headlines in the dailies.

Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida said that Israeli warplanes launched a series of strikes on several posts across the besieged Gaza Strip.

Al-Ayyam noted that the airstrikes came in retaliation to alleged rocket and incendiary balloon fire from the strip.

Al-Quds reported that Israel plans to seize tens of thousands of dunams of Palestinian land in order to create seven ‘nature reserves’ and expand 12 others in the West Bank.

Al-Ayyam said in this regard that Israeli occupation authorities announce the creation of seven new settlement ‘nature reserves’ and the expansion of 12 others in the West Bank in order to “develop Jewish settlement”.   

Al-Quds slammed that Israeli announcement on the nature reserves as tantamount to the most serious settlement announcement since the 1993 Oslo Accords.

The dailies said that Jordan slammed Israel’s announcement to create the nature reserves in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry was reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida stating: “the reserves will speed up his appearance before the International Criminal Court as a war criminal,” referring to Israeli ‘Defense’ Minister Naftali Bennett.

According to al-Quds, Israeli forces conducted military drills in the northern Jordan Valley.

It said that Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh discussed with the World Bank the possibilities of supporting the government’s development plans.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam reported that two Palestinian residents of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir were forced to demolish their own houses.

Al-Quds said that Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in Madama village, located to the south of Nablus city.

It added that settlers continued to barge their way into Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque.

It reported Palestinian activists and factions in this regard calling Palestinians to participate en masse in the Fajr (Dawn) Prayer at both sites tomorrow.

According to al-Ayyam, settlers seek to consolidate a colonial-settlement outpost on Palestinian land in the northern Jordan Valley.

Jordan’s monarch Abdullah II was reported in al-Quds reiterating that stability could not be achieved without peace.

Addressing the European Parliament, Abdullah II said: “A more peaceful world is not possible without a stable Middle East and a stable Middle East is not possible without peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”

He was also reported in al-Ayyam warning that all-out war between the US and Iran in the Middle East would wreak “untold chaos” on the world.

Al-Quds said that the 33 Palestinian children recently transferred by the Israeli Prison Service from Ofer Prison to Damun Prison ]without the presence of adult representatives[ face harsh conditions in detention.

It published an Arabic translation for Brookings Institution’s report What do Americans think of BDS movement, aimed at Israel? And does it matter for the US election?

It also published a feature story titled Gaza Palestinians live with access to the minimum basic services at a time when crises portend more dire consequences.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said that Foreign and Expatriates Minister Riyad al-Malki passed the chairmanship of the Group 77 (G77) and China to Guyana.

According to al-Hayat al-Jadida, the Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDECO) and the Jordanian National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) signed an agreement to increase electricity supply to the occupied Palestinian territories.

K.F.