Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida highlighted statements by the president of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė, following her meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas, who was on an official visit to that European country, in which she called for a halt to Israeli settlement construction on Palestinian land and that the EU does not recognize the settlements as part of Israel.
Al-Quds also reported on this story, but highlighted as its main story statements by Minister of Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqi saying that Israel is going to release 32 prisoners next Tuesday from the 104 pre-Oslo prisoners it has agreed to release as part of the package deal to resume direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.
The paper quoted US Secretary of State John Kerry saying that Qatar has agreed to cancel all of the Palestinian Authority’s debt worth $150 million.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida said that residents of Obeidieh, near Bethlehem, buried on Monday Younis Radaydeh Obeidi, who was killed last week when he broke into an Israeli army base north of Jerusalem.
The paper printed a story about the Arab women running in the local elections in Israeli towns, which are being held on Tuesday.
Al-Ayyam said that the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are boycotting the local elections in their city to protest its illegal annexation by Israel.
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