RAMALLAH, May 23, 2016 (WAFA) -  Israeli settlers’ leveling of Palestinian lands and forces’ detention of Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza hit the front page headlines in the dailies.

Al-Quds reported that Israeli settlers leveled Palestinian farmlands to the south of Nablus and west of Salfit districts in the northern West Bank.

It is worth noting that settlers continued to do so in order to expand the illegal Shvut Rachel settlement, south of Nablus, and to prepare for the construction of hundreds of settler units in the newly-recognized settlement of Leshem, originally built to be a ‘neighborhood’ of Ale Zahav settlement of the Ariel bloc.

It added that settlers re-forced their way into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem and Israeli forces continued to launch detention raids across the West Bank.

Regarding detentions, al-Ayyam added that Israeli naval forces detained ten Palestinian fishermen and seized five boats in two separate attacks off the coast of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza Strip.

On the other hand, al-Ayyam opted to highlight eviction orders for Palestinian property in Jerusalem in its main front page news item.

It reported that Palestinians are threatened to be evicted or expelled from five of their properties in the Jerusalem neighborhood.

It reported Peace Now slamming the planned eviction as being based on a discriminatory law that is applied in favor of Jews.

It also reported that Israeli forces tightened blockade on the Jerusalem town of Hizma, disrupting the daily life of the local Palestinian community.

Furthermore, al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida highlighted Europe day celebration in Gaza city. This theme featured as the main front page news item in al-Hayat al-Jadida.

EU Representative in Palestine, Ralf Tarraf, who attended the celebration, was reported in al-Quds as saying that for the EU, there is no difference between East Jerusalem, the West Bank Area C and the Gaza Strip – all are being occupied by Israel.

He was also reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida as saying EU seeks to establish a fully sovereign Palestinian state and calling for enabling the Palestinian consensus government to assume its role in the Gaza Strip.

Highlighting the US-Palestinian Economic Dialogue in Ramallah, a dialogue held by US and Palestinian officials, al-Quds reported that Palestinian officials asked their US counterparts help review the Paris Protocol on Economic Relations.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam highlighted French Foreign Minister Manuel Valls’ visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories to push the French peace bid.

Valls was reported in al-Quds as seeking to convince Israel to accept the bid and as calling for Israeli settlement construction to be halted.

He was also reported in al-Ayyam as denouncing boycotting Israel as harboring hatred that emanates from Anti-Semitism.  

Al-Ayyam reported that a Palestinian ]with Israeli citizenship[ was brutally assaulted by Israeli border police in central Tel Aviv.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Labor Minister Mamun Abu Shahla as saying that the government had opened applications for 4,000 jobs as the first phase of a project to employ 10,000 youths in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

K.F.