RAMALLAH, November 5, 2016 (WAFA) – The three Palestinian Arabic dailies highlighted in their Saturday issue statements by President Mahmoud Abbas on peace and settlements.
Abbas statements came during a press conference in Ramallah with Canada’s Governor General David Johnston.
Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida highlighted in their main front page headline Abbas saying “we are always ready to make peace with Israel.” Al-Ayyam quoted him saying: “Settlements will definitely impede the vision of two states. We support all efforts to uproot terrorism and extremism.”
For his turn, Johnston was reported in al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida as expressing his country’s commitment to working with Palestinians.
Israeli forces’ quelling of the non-violent weekly Friday protests across the West Bank and east of the Gaza Strip also hit the front page headlines in the dailies.
Al-Quds said Israeli forces shot and injured a number of Palestinians and detained others as protestors marked 99 years for the Balfour Declaration.
Al-Ayyam said scores of protestors were shot and injured and suffocated when Israeli troops fired rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas at them during the protests in several West Bank villages.
The dailies added Israeli troops shot and injured two Palestinians protesting near the border fence east of Gaza.
Highlighting imminent home demolitions, al-Quds reported Israeli municipality of Jerusalem took photos for Palestinian residential and commercial structures in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan and summoned several owners for interrogation.
Al-Ayyam reported UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories as stating the demolition of donor-funded buildings by Israeli forces increased by 150 percent.
Moreover, the dailies said Israeli military banned the call to dawn prayer from being projected over loudspeakers in three mosques in the Jerusalem district town of Abu Dis.
Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Foreign Ministry official Ammar Hijazi as stating the Palestinian government will protest failure of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to look into its application for membership.
K.F./M.A.
