RAMALLAH, Saturday, March 21, 2020 (WAFA) – Cure of 17 people in the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem who had the coronavirus was highlighted on the front page of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies today.
The dailies said that with the cure of the 17, the number of people infected with the deadly virus in Palestine has dropped to 31. No new cases were reported yesterday.
At the same time, said al-Quds daily, one person has died of the virus in Israel, the first fatality, as the number of infected has increased to 705, and worldwide, said the paper, around 11,000 dead and quarter of a million infected.
It said quoting an official from the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, that the agency will not spare effort to face coronavirus and that all the refugee camps will be sterilized.
The paper said Israeli police closed the gates to Jerusalem’s old city yesterday as well as the gates to Al-Aqsa Mosque while attacking those who tried to reach the Mosque for the Friday prayers injuring an elderly man and two women while detaining 13 people.
It quoted the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem minister saying that the Palestinian government will do all it can to help the Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem in fighting coronavirus.
Al-Ayyam daily had more or less the same headlines, all related to coronavirus, and said only 500 people attended the Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. It also said that four Palestinian political prisoners in Israel have been placed in a quarantine in Megiddo prison.
It said the Palestinian security detained 20 mosque imams in the southern West Bank city of Hebron who violated instructions regarding prayers at mosques.
It also said one woman was killed and six others injured in two traffic accidents near Bethlehem and Ramallah.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida said one person was injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers in Kufr Qaddoum yesterday and another in a nearby village.
It quoted Palestine’s ambassador to France saying six Palestinians were infected with coronavirus in France, including former cabinet minister Anwar Abu Eisheh.
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