RAMALLAH, August 21, 2011 (WAFA) - The three Arabic dailies Sunday highlighted the military escalations in Gaza, with the ongoing Israeli air attacks against the Strip that started on Thursday.

Al-Ayyam's front page main headline featured the ongoing Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, and the death of two Israelis and injury of ten in a Palestinian missile attack last Thursday from the Strip on the city of Beersheba in southern Israel.

The newspaper reported on Israeli Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak's threats that the Israeli response to the missile attacks will be 'hard and painful.'

Al-Quds' prime front page story said the Israeli army has deployed tanks along the Israeli borders with Gaza, threatening a further escalation in the current aggression against the Strip.

The daily reported that Hamas and other Palestinian factions will consider a calming period if Israel ceases its air strikes.

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida said the Quartet was concerned by the difficult situation in Gaza, warned from the danger of escalation and called for 'exercising self-restraint.'

Al-Quds featured the Israeli arrest of seven Palestinians during a non-violent protest against settlements and the Apartheid Wall in Beit Ummar, a village north of Hebron.

The three papers reported on the situation in Syria and Libya, where popular rebels anticipated an 'imminent and catastrophic' end of the current Libyan president, Muammar Gaddafi.

An Al-Quds editorial discussed the diplomatic implications, on Egyptian-Israeli relations, of the killing of five Egyptian officers by Israeli soldiers at the borders between the two countries on Thursday. The editorial described the Israeli 'unwise' actions as 'playing with fire' with Egypt, and warned from the post-revolution Egyptian interim government's response, especially after popular protests demanded the removal of the Israeli ambassador to Egypt and the re-consideration of the 1979 Camp David agreement.

R.Q./F.J.