RAMALLAH, Saturday, March 14, 2020 (WAFA) – The coronavirus pandemic continued today to occupy the main front-page headlines in the three Palestinian Arabic dailies.
The papers highlighted confirmation of four new coronavirus cases in the southern West Bank city Bethlehem, the epicenter of the disease in Palestine, which brought the total infected to 35, almost all of them, except one, were in Bethlehem.
Al-Ayyam said the Palestinian government is considering stricter measures to prevent the disease from spreading as 3663 cases are currently in home quarantine.
It said Israel has reported 143 cases as it ponders billions of dollars in losses. It also said the World Health Organization has declared Europe as the new epicenter of the disease replacing China where it all started and where the number of victims in on the decline.
The papers also reported on the fight to contain the pandemic worldwide with al-Quds daily saying US President Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency in the United States to fight the disease.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida said that for the first time a doctor gives the Friday prayers sermon at a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarm instead of the mosque imam in order to educate people about coronavirus.
It said teachers and students are using electronic social media for learning as schools in Palestine remain closed due to the pandemic.
In other news, the papers reported on the weekly confrontations between Palestinian residents and Israeli soldiers in the northern West Bank village of Kufr Qaddoum that lead to several cases of injuries mainly from teargas inhalation.
They also said a Palestinian man was forced to self-demolish his four story building in Shufat refugee camp to avoid having to pay exorbitant amounts of money if the Israeli municipality demolishes it for construction without permit.
Al-Quds said Israeli police barred Palestinians from planting olive saplings in their land in Wadi al-Rababa in Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem.
It and the other dailies reported on the bad weather conditions yesterday that led to the death of two children in Gaza due to fallen objects and damage to several homes.
Al-Ayyam said another man badly wounded in the Nusseirat refugee camp fire in Gaza last week has died, making him the 18th fatality of the fire.
It said the Mahmoud Darwish Institute gave its prize this year to US linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky.
M.K.
