RAMALLAH, May 1, 2013 (WAFA) – The Israeli target killing of a Palestinian in Gaza and the Israeli settler rampage in the West Bank following the killing of a settler near Za’atara checkpoint, south of Nablus, were the main front page stories of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies on Wednesday.
The papers said an Israeli drone killed a Palestinian in Gaza after targeting his motorcycle with a missile. They also said settlers rampaged in the Nablus area villages, setting agricultural fields on fire and attacking homes and Palestinian commuters on the West Bank road particularly two buses of schoolgirls going on a picnic hurting some 35 students and causing serious damage to the buses.
The papers printed pictures of one of the buses with its windshield smashed by rocks and also showed pictures of the confrontations, which also involved the Israeli army that stood by watching as settlers went on a rampage and interfered only to quell Palestinians defending themselves, their fields and their homes.
The papers also said a Palestinian sanitation worker from East Jerusalem was stabbed in a West Jerusalem neighborhood and was reported in serious condition. The perpetrators, believed to be Orthodox Jews, were not apprehended.
The main story in al-Quds focused on the meeting between the delegation of Arab foreign ministers with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington. The paper said the Arab League has accepted the idea of land swap between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of two states for two people on the 1967 borders.
Kerry hailed this step as progressive and a change in the Arab Peace Initiative that could bring peace within this year, as came in the paper.
Nevertheless, al-Ayyam said in an exclusive story quoting Foreign Minister Riyad Malki, who was with the Arab ministerial delegation to Washington, that “there is no change in the Arab Peace Initiative” because any change would require a decision by the Arab heads of state, not the foreign ministers. He said the land swap was anyhow a Palestinian idea since the Camp David talks.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported on the state visit for President Mahmoud Abbas to Austria and his meetings in Vienna.
It also quoted Fatah Central Committee member Muhammad Shtayyeh saying that Abbas may travel to Cairo in the middle of May to finalize the reconciliation file.
However, al-Ayyam quoted Abbas saying from Vienna that he was waiting for agreement from Hamas in order to finalize the formation of the unity government and that Egypt was exerting effort in that direction.
Al-Quds had a story which said that the West Jerusalem municipality plans to build a cable car linking the Mount of Olives with Lions (Magharbe) Gate.
M.S.
