RAMALLAH, Monday, February 8, 2021 (WAFA) – Two of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies highlighted on their front page today the launch in Cairo of the intra-Palestinian national talks that are supposed to focus on eliminating any hurdles in the way of holding legislative elections on May 22 and presidential elections on July 31.
Al-Ayyam said the talks are intended to overcome the last of the hurdles that stand in the way of holding elections, while al-Quds daily said in the headline on this topic that 14 Palestinian factions are going to discuss unity and elections.
The third daily, al-Hayat al-Jadida, highlighted Israeli reaction to the ruling of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which said on Saturday that it has jurisdiction on the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
The paper said Israel has warned its officials against being arrested in light of the ruling on charges of committing war crimes in the occupied territories.
The paper also said that Palestine condemned attempts by Australia and other countries to politicize the intentions and work of the ICC.
Al-Quds daily said that the Israeli cabinet has rejected the ICC ruling, and had a picture of a little girl from the Baker family in Gaza whose four of its children were killed in the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza, which is one of the war crimes committed by Israel to be investigated by the ICC.
The paper also said the Israeli occupation forces injured four Palestinians with live bullets during confrontations in the occupied territories, ordered to stop construction on four houses, and once again raided Humsa al-Bqaia to demolish what was rebuilt to shelter its displaced Palestinian residents.
The main front-page story in al-Quds daily was on the African Union summit held in Addis Ababa which strongly condemned the Israeli settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territories as a serious breach of international law.
Al-Ayyam highlighted the latest with coronavirus in Palestine and said there was a rise in the slope with 14 deaths and 824 new cases confirmed.
It said life is gradually returning to the old city of Jerusalem, which was shut down by the Israeli police during the long corona lockdown, which ended yesterday, and had a picture of the Dome of the Rock in Al-Aqsa Mosque compound with Muslim Palestinians being able once again to worship there.
It said Israeli police detained a Jewish fanatic who twice attacked a church in Jerusalem.
The paper had a story about the launch of the Palestinian postal code, which it said intends to protect the postal parcels destined for Palestine from being stolen by Israel, which controls the borders to Palestine being the occupying power since June 1967.
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