RAMALLAH, July 2, 2015 (WAFA) – The three Palestinian Arabic dailies focused in their Thursday issue on the deadly attacks conducted by ISIS-linked Wilayat Sinai group against Egyptian military sites in the Sinai peninsula on Wednesday.

The dailies put the death toll among army officers and soldiers at more than 17, while they reported that dozens of ISIS militants were killed in a counter crackdown by the Egyptian military, which involved F16 jets and Apache helicopters.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam said nine members of the Muslim Brotherhood were killed after Egyptian security forces cracked down on an apartment in Cairo on Wednesday.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said the Israeli military stepped up its readiness along the border with Egypt following Wednesday’s upsurge of violence in neighboring Sinai.

In a different subject, al-Quds said President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Yasser Abed Rabbo from his office as Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida highlighted in its main news story that Abbas has granted the family of Mohammad Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian child who was burnt alive by Israeli extremists in Jerusalem on July 2, 2014, the Medal of the Order of Jerusalem.

Al-Ayyam reported that Abbas asked Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to consider a reshuffle of a maximum of five ministries in the current National Consensus government.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida and al-Quds said the United States State Department rejected confusion between Israel and Israeli-controlled territories, saying that it runs counter to US Trade Legislation.

Al-Ayyam said the Israeli army announced it had recently arrested about 40 Hamas members in the West Bank, including a cell that plotted armed attacks on Israeli targets.

Al-Quds reported on scores of activists who suffered from teargas inhalation during separate confrontations with Israeli forces in Ramallah and Bethlehem districts on Wednesday.

Al-Ayyam reported on the publishing of a video by ISIS group in Syria which threatened to declare war on Gaza’s Hamas Movement for the latter’s recent crackdown on ISIS-linked members in Gaza.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida said the United Church of Christ voted on Wednesday to divest from companies that benefit from the illegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

Al-Quds quoted Yoram Cohen, Israeli security agency (Shin Bet) chief, who noted to a steady rise in what he termed “folk terror” and “lone wolf” attacks on Israeli targets in the West Bank, saying that since 2012 there has been a 50 percent rise each year, from 683 attacks in 2012 to 1,834 in 2014.

M.N/M.H