RAMALLAH, Monday, March 9, 2020 (WAFA) – The three Palestinian Arabic dailies continued today to highlight on their front page the novel coronavirus and its impact at home and in the world.
The papers highlighted the fact that the 19 Palestinians in Bethlehem who were tested positive with the disease remain in good health and that there are no new cases anywhere else in the West Bank or Gaza.
Al-Ayyam said tourists are beginning to leave the country, while al-Hayat al-Jadida said the American tourists at Angel Hotel in Beit Jala, adjacent to Bethlehem and the location of the infected cases, are being kept in Palestinian hospitality after Israel refused to let them leave the closed city.
It also said all public places, including those of worship, in Bethlehem were closed.
Al-Quds quoted Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh saying that “we are not exaggerating in our measures and we are not taking lightly the seriousness of the situation.”
It said Israel is considering closing its borders for visitors from outside for quarantining arrivals.
In other subjects, the three papers said residents of the northern West Bank town of Beita foiled an attempt by Israeli settlers to take over Jabal al-Arma. There were also reports about confrontation between soldiers and Palestinians in other parts of the West Bank.
Al-Quds said the Society of St. Yves, a Catholic human rights organization, was able to get the Israeli interior ministry to rescind a decision rejecting family reunification of a Palestinian woman.
It said mosques in Gaza collected $32,500 for the victims of the Nusseirat explosion and fire that claimed lives of 11 people, injury of over 50 and heavy damage to many shops and buildings, and that 13 of the critically wounded were transferred to West Bank hospitals as seven of them are being considered for transfer to Israeli hospitals.
Al-Ayyam said a committee investigating recent events in the northern West Bank town of Qabatia in which one person was shot and killed by Palestinian security forces gunfire has held the joint force of the responsibility for “disproportionate reaction.”
M.K.
