RAMALLAH, Saturday, January 18, 2020 (WAFA) – Israeli police assault yesterday on early morning Muslim worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City was highlighted on the front page of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies today.
The papers said police raided the third holiest site in Islam as thousands of worshippers attended the dawn prayers at the holy compound. They said police brutally attacked the worshippers and teargassed them without any reason.
They said that thousands also attended the early morning prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in a step looked at as affirming Muslim ownership of these holy places in light of Israeli attempts to take them over and turn them into Jewish temples.
They also reported on the Israeli army assault yesterday against protesters in the West Bank demonstrating against settlements and landgrab causing injuries from rubber bullets and teargas inhalation.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida made the story of the meeting between President Mahmoud Abbas and Minister of Health May Keileh as its main front-page story. Its aid Keileh told Abbas that the medical equipment he donated has arrived in Gaza.
Al-Quds said on this that there are warnings of total collapse of the health system in the Gaza Strip quoting on this a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) who said that the Agency is facing serious financial problems that hamper its humanitarian and social services to millions of Palestinian refugees everywhere, mainly health.
Al-Ayyam also said the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip is causing shortage in the food security to 70 percent of the households.
It said a Palestinian resident of occupied East Jerusalem demolished his own house as demanded by the Israeli municipality for construction without permit displacing as a result his family.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida printed a story and a picture showing bruises on the leg of a Palestinian man who was tortured by the Israelis.
The three papers also reported on the protests in Jordan against the gas deal with Israel, the protests in Lebanon against the economic situation, the protests in Iraq against the government as well as the situation in the United States with efforts to impeach President Donald Trump and the predicament of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following his indictment on corruption charges.
M.K.
