The top front page headline in al-Ayyam dealt with the situation in Syria, highlighting the large number of people killed in the confrontations that have plagued the country in recent months.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida featured the meeting between President Mahmoud Abbas and special US peace envoy David Hale in Ramallah on Sunday evening.

This meeting, as well as the developments in Syria, also occupied a section of the front pages in all the papers.

Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, particularly the revelation made by Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the Israeli government was covering up on “illegal” settlement activity in the West Bank, was highlighted on the front pages of the three papers.

The papers also reported on a statement by a Hamas official, Saleh Arouri, that the second phase of the prisoners exchange will take place on schedule and will include the remaining nine female prisoners not included in the first batch of the exchange, which took place last month when Israel released 477 prisoners, including 27 women.

Al-Quds included, on its front page, a story about an Israeli plan to take over a two-apartment building belonging to the Palestinian Sumrein family in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, by claiming the plot was owned by the custodian of absentee property. It said the family was given until the end of this month to vacate the building and turn it over to El-Ad settlement group, which is active in the takeover of Palestinian homes in the Silwan area.

Al-Quds also reported on Hamas’ crackdown on plans to hold rallies in Gaza to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat.

Its editorial also touched on the same subject, wondering what Hamas is afraid of when people mark Arafat’s death. It said this was one of many other activities Hamas had prevented in the Gaza Strip, which, it said, “sheds some doubt on statements by Hamas leaders and its true intentions regarding reconciliation.”

 M.S./F.J.