RAMALLAH, Wednesday, January 20, 2021 (WAFA) – The ongoing Israeli settler attacks against the Palestinian people and their property besides to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza dominated the front page headlines in the dailies.

The dailies reported that Israeli settlers uprooted some 100 olive trees near Yatta town, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

The dailies said that the Israeli occupation artillery pounded several locations in the northern and eastern besieged Gaza Strip purportedly after a rocket from the enclave hit southern Israel.

Al-Quds said that Israeli forces shot four Palestinians near the section of Israel’s illegal annexation wall, north of Qalqilia city. According to al-Ayyam, three Palestinians were injured.

According to al-Quds, the Israeli military conducted drills in Palestinian farmlands in the northern Jordan Valley.

Furthermore, al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida said that Premier Mohammad Shtayyeh issued instructions for considering offering tax breaks for media institutions and urged the institutions to benefit from Estidama Program.

The Estidama Program was launched by the Palestine Monetary Authority to provide funding to small and medium enterprises impacted by the novel coronavirus crisis.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was reported in al-Quds calling for building a global solid block that provide the support necessary to the Palestinian people’s steadfastness and resistance.

Highlighting the latest coronavirus statistics, the dailies said that 660 Palestinians contracted the virus and 19 others died of it in the occupied territories (the West Bank and Gaza).

Al-Ayyam reported the Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry confirming 14 new Covid-19 cases among Palestinian-Americans in the US.

It said that the first batch of the Russian coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, will arrive the occupied Palestinian territories within few days.

The dailies highlighted Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh’s visit to Russia to sign agreement securing vaccinations.

They said that al-Sheikh met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the special Russian presidential envoy for the Middle East Mikhail Bogdanov and discussed with them developing bilateral relations.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam added in this regard that Moscow welcomed President Mahmoud Abbas’ decree setting a the date of elections.

Moreover, the dailies highlighted international statements condemning the Israeli occupation authorities’ decision to approve some 800 new settler units in the occupied West Bank.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was reported in al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida reiterating that: “the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity …”.

Al-Ayyam said that the representatives of 16 European countries besides to the European Union protested to Israel over the colonial settlement construction.

The US top diplomat’s remarks on the US foreign policy with regards to the Middle East also hit the front page headlines in the dailies.

Al-Quds said that President-elect Joe Biden's nominee to be America's secretary of state, Antony Blinken, vowed to draw the curtain on the outgoing US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy.

Blinken was reported in al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida stating that US President-elect Joe Biden supports the two-state solution.

He was reported in al-Ayyam stating that Biden would “give the Palestinians a state to which they are entitled is through the so-called two-state solution.”

Al-Ayyam said that France called on Israel “to facilitate the holding of ]Palestinian[ ballots throughout the Palestinian Territories, including in East Jerusalem.”

According to al-Hayat al-Jadida, Kuwait’s National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Ali Al-Ghanim affirmed that his country would not be among those countries which would rush to normalize their relations with the Israeli occupation.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported the Under-Secretary of the Interior Ministry Yousef Harb announcing that a final agreement has been reached with the Israeli occupation authorities to release the equipment of issuing biometric passports.

K.F.