RAMALLAH, Tuesday, June 09, 2020 (WAFA) – The escalation of Israeli demolitions of Palestinian structures and land grab and the Palestinian leadership’s threat to withdraw recognition of Israel over its annexation plan hit the front page headlines in the Palestinian Arabic dailies published today.

The dailies reported that Israeli occupation authorities issued military demolition orders against Palestinian residential and agricultural structures in addition to tents in Hares village, west of Salfit, and in Khallet al-Khaldieh and Khallet Azzoun, south of Hebron, in the south and north of the West Bank.

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh’s threat to withdraw recognition of Israel should the Israeli government implements the annexation move also dominated the front page headlines in the dailies.

Shtayyeh was reported in al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida stating: “The issue of withdrawing our recognition of Israel will be on the table in case the possibilities of establishing the Palestinian state are destroyed.”

He was also reported stating: “We are waging a battle in defense of our national project and political entity and we will not waiver our rights enshrined in international law.”

He was also reported clarifying that paying the public servants’ salaries for May would depend on the treasury’s available financial resources.

According to al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida, Shtayyeh has issued instructions regarding the need to implement development projects in the Jordan Valley.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam said that Israeli forces conducted large-scale detention raids across the West Bank.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida elaborated in this regard that a total of 29 Palestinians were rounded up from various parts of the West Bank, mostly from Jerusalem.

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda was reported in al-Ayyam stating that Palestine’s decision to absolve itself of the agreements with Israel does not have a bearing on the exercise of the ICC’s jurisdiction in the situation of Palestine.

Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister Riyad al-Malki was reported in the dailies considering the ICC’s response consistent with the international law and its principles.

Additionally, al-Quds and al-Ayyam spotlighted a sit-in staged by Palestinians with disabilities and special needs in protest of the recent Israeli police killing of Iyad Hallak, an unarmed autistic Palestinian man, in Jerusalem.

The dailies said that Palestinians staged a mass rally in downtown Ramallah against Israel’s impending annexation move as well as the US-touted ‘peace plan’, dubbed deal of the century.

Regarding the spread of the novel coronavirus in the occupied territories, the dailies reported Health Minister Mai Alkaila confirming that a Palestinian man tested positive for the virus in al-Dhahriya town, south of Hebron.

The dailies also reported that another Palestinian contracted the virus in Jerusalem. Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida added in this regard that a Palestinian expatriate died due to the fatal virus in the US.

According to al-Quds, 75 Israeli settlers and ‘security officers’ barged their way into Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam said that Israel prevented German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas from visiting the West Bank during his upcoming visit to Israel tomorrow, Wednesday.

The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry was reported in al-Quds stating that Israel’s annexation move would harm Israel’s relations with Germany.

According to al-Quds, Israeli hospitals refuse to receive Palestinian patients from the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip following the halt of security coordination with Israel.

It reported the US ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft claiming that her country was still working to bring Palestinians to the negotiations table.

It reported Israeli human rights group Ir Amim warning that occupied East Jerusalem has become the poorest city, where unemployment rates jumped to 32 percent due to coronavirus.

Al-Ayyam highlighted Israel’s plan to build the “Silicon Valley” hub in occupied East Jerusalem, which paves the way for the eviction of Palestinian business owners to make way for the high-tech hub.

It said that the “Silicon Valley” hub targets Wadi al-Joz neighborhood as part of a larger plan aimed at obliterating the city’s Palestinian landmarks.

According to al-Hayat al-Jadida, Israeli settlers slashed the tires of a number of Palestinian vehicles in al-Sawiya village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

It highlighted the Palestinian Supreme Court’s ruling annulling presidential decree transferring the ownership of a plot of land to the Russian Orthodox Church in Hebron.

K.F./M.K.