RAMALLAH, Thursday, September 03, 2020 (WAFA) – The death of a Palestinian prisoner as a result of what Palestinian rights activists described as medical negligence by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) dominated the front page headlines in today’s issue of the Palestinian Arabic dailies.

The dailies reported that Daoud Khatib, 45, died in the notorious Israeli detention facility of Ofer, west of Ramallah.

Al-Quds elaborated that Khatib died due to a heart attack, and al-Hayat al-Jadida that he died only four months before the completion of his prison sentence.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida added in this regard that the Israeli suppression forces stormed several sections in Ofer detention facility, where they pepper-sprayed Palestinian detainees.

Moreover, the dailies said that Israeli occupation forces shot and injured three Palestinians in Nablus, Bethlehem and Jenin districts.

Israeli forces opened fire towards a man at Zaatara checkpoint, south of Nablus city, injuring him purportedly after he attempted to carry out a car-ramming and stabbing attack.

Another casualty, identified as a resident of Aida refugee camp, was injured from Israeli military gunfire at the northern entrance of Bethlehem city, while the other was shot during confrontations in Muthalath al-Shuhada area, south of Jenin.

The latest spate of home and structure demolitions as part of the Israeli policy of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians also hit the front page headlines.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam said that Israeli occupation authorities demolished two inhabited houses and a shack in Hebron district.

The demolished structures were located in Khirbet Jinba, one of the hamlets making up Masafer Yatta community in the southern Hebron hills.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida said that the occupation authorities tore down an agricultural room and a water well, south of Hebron city.

Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida added that Israeli forces delivered demolition orders against five Palestinian homes in Birin locality, southwest of the Hebron-district town of Bani Naim.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida also reported that Israeli forces seized three tents from the Bedouin community of Wadi al-Seeq, located to the northeast of Ramallah.

The dailies also covered statistics about the coronavirus pandemic outbreak in the occupied Palestinian territories.

They said that 719 Palestinians contracted the highly contagious virus and three others died of it in the occupied territories in the last 24 hours.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida added in this regard that 266 COVID-19 patients recovered in the last 24 hours.

Al-Quds added that 35 new cases were confirmed among Palestinians in the diaspora, and four fatalities were recorded among the Palestinian citizens of Israel in the last 24 hours.

The joint meeting for the heads of all Palestinian political factions at home and abroad, scheduled for later today, was featured in the dailies.

Al-Ayyam said that meeting will be chaired by President Mahmoud Abbas and that six of the heads of faction, who are in exile, would attend the meeting via video-conference from Beirut.

Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh was reported in al-Quds stressing that the meeting is basically intended to set the path towards intra-Palestinian unity.

He was also reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida expressing his confidence that Palestine and the Palestinian people would be able to foil all conspiracies.

Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat was reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida commenting that the meeting would reinforce Palestinian steadfastness in the face of all challenges.

Al-Quds said that Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziyad Nakhalah discussed the unification of the Palestinian position at the meeting involving the heads of the factions.

Chairman of the Qatari Committee for Gaza Reconstruction, Mohammad al-Emadi, was reported in al-Quds announcing that as part of the calm understanding, gas for Gaza’s sole power plant and new materials would be allowed entry to the enclave.

According to al-Quds and al-Ayyam, the Israeli cabinet approved the policy of withholding the bodies of all slain Palestinians.

Premier Mohammad Shtayyeh was reported in al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida announcing that harsh penalties would be imposed on illegal militants.

The Ministry of Education was reported in al-Ayyam announcing that it has taken all arrangements necessary for the safe opening of the school year.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said that the three children who died in a fire accident at their family house in Nusseirat refugee camp in the central besieged Gaza Strip were laid to rest.

Finally, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida telling White House adviser Jared Kushner that the two-state solution is required to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

K.F./M.K