RAMALLAH, Thursday, December 3, 2020 (WAFA) – The presidential decree extending the state of emergency for a month in the occupied Palestinian territories to fight the Covid-19 outbreak hit the front page headlines in the three Palestinian mainstream dailies.

Al-Quds, al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported that President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree extending the state of emergency for a month.

He was also quoted announcing that the government had reached agreements with some countries to provide Palestine with Covid-19 vaccine.

The dailies reported the Health Minister Mai al-Kaileh confirming 2,188 Covid-19 cases and 16 fatalities in the occupied territories (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip).

She was also reported in al-Quds confirming the recovery of 1,051 Covid-19 patients.

Among the latest cases and fatalities, al-Quds and al-Ayyam said that 222 cases and two fatalities were recorded in East Jerusalem.

The Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry was reported in al-Ayyam announcing that 42 Palestinians contracted the virus and another died of it in the diaspora.

According to al-Quds, the Palestinian popular resistance have successfully forced the Israeli army to remove a colonial settlement outpost that was recently set up by settlers on lands belonging to Beit Dajan village, east of Nablus.

Moreover, al-Ayyam said that Israeli forces rounded up 19 Palestinians and ransacked houses in multiple raids across the West Bank. According to al-Quds, however, 32 Palestinians were detained.

Spotlighting the situation in Jerusalem, al-Quds said that the Higher Islamic Committee in Jerusalem called for the cessation of Israeli violations at the historic cemeteries of Yusufiya and Bab al-Rahma, along the eastern wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Al-Ayyam added in this regard that the Jerusalem Waqf Council condemned the escalation of Israeli occupation violations against the holy sites in the city.

Both dailies said that Israeli settlers barged their way into the archaeological site of Sebastia, north of Nablus.

Moreover, the dailies highlighted the release of over $1 billion in tax revenues withheld from the Palestinian Authority.

Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh was reported announcing that Israel transferred all the tax revenues dues to the Palestinian treasury.

Following this step, the government is now able to pay its employees their full salaries for November besides to 50 percent of their arrears.

Al-Quds published a column article for the head of the Chinese Representative Office to Palestine Guo Wei titled China’s support to the Palestinian people’s just question is unwavering.

The Chinese President Xi Jinping was reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida stating that the Palestinian question is “a root problem” that requires a comprehensive solution based on the two-state solution.

The dailies said that Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the donor countries to take more serious measures to boycott the Israeli colonial settlements.

Al-Quds said that the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz revealed Israeli army violations against Palestinian minors.

Al-Quds reported is based on Haaretz report titled Israeli Army Vowed to Limit Arrests of Palestinian Minors, but Data Shows Otherwise.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam said that the United Nations voted on four resolutions in favor of the Palestinian people.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida added in this regard that on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the United Nations affirmed its support to the two-state solution as well as the need to cease the Israeli colonial settlement construction.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported member of Fatah Central Committee Rawhi Fattouh slamming Hamas senior official Khalil al-Hayya’s remarks on national reconciliation as an attempt to deceive the public opinion.

He was also reported accusing Hamas of derailing the achievement of intra-Palestinian reconciliation.

According to al-Ayyam, two Palestinian workers were killed and 22 others were injured as a passenger bus ran over them at the Israeli Checkpoint 300, at the northern entrance of Bethlehem.

K.F.