RAMALLAH, Sunday, March 27, 2022 (WAFA) – News about the the second phase of local elections at 50 Palestinian localities in the West Bank hit the front pages of the three Arabic Palestinian dailies on Sunday.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida, al-Ayyam and al-Quds said that polls opened Saturday morning for the second phase of local elections at 50 Palestinian localities in the West Bank, adding that polling centers opened their doors at 7:00 a.m. and continued until 7:00 p.m. to enable eligible voters, estimated to be around 715,000 voters, to cast their votes.

The dailies said that President Mahmoud Abbas, accompanied by Ramallah Governor Laila Ghannam, President of the Central Elections Commission (CEC), Hanna Nasser, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hussein al-Sheikh, and the General Supervisor of Official Media, Ahmad Assaf, cast his vote in the local elections in the city of al-Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah.

“We are very happy that our people are exercising democracy," said President Abbas, expressing hope that elections would be held in all the Palestinian territories, not just in the West Bank, and that “we would be allowed to hold presidential and legislative elections in all the Palestinian territories."

The papers added that the voter turnout for the second phases of the local elections reached 53% and that the official election results will be released today.

Five Palestinian children died and their parents were critically injured after a fire erupted in their home in the town of Taffuh, near the city of Hebron in the south of the occupied West Bank, as reported in the papers.

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh met the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in Doha on the sidelines of the Doha Forum, briefing him on the political and economic challenges facing the Palestinian people, accortding to the papers.

Shtayyeh  also briefed the Emir of Qatar on the difficult financial and economic situation in Palestine, explaining that Israel’s illegal deductions from the tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians and decline in international aid have rendered the Palestinian Authority unable to fulfill its obligations.

Al-Ayyam said that Israeli settlers, backed by soldiers, attacked Palestinian citizens in the northern West Bank village of Asira al-Qiblya, south of Nablus.

The paper added that a large Israeli police force attacked Palestinian youths outside Herod’s Gate in occupied East Jerusalem and later detained a minor.

K.T.