RAMALLAH, December 17, 2016 (WAFA) – Israel’s freeing of corpses of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in recent months and the nomination of David Freidman as US ambassador to Israel hit the front page headlines in local Palestinian dailies on Saturday.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said the Israeli occupation authorities released corpses of six Palestinians from the West Bank shot dead in the last four months by its forces in alleged attacks. The families received the corpses, who came from Hebron, Jenin and Tulkarm areas, in preparation to bury them.

The main front page story in al-Quds, nevertheless, was the nomination of David Friedman, an extremist American Jew who advocates Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, as US ambassador to Israel.

Al-Ayyam said in this regard US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Freidman, who supports settlement construction and look forward to moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, as he had said, as the US ambassador to Israel.

Highlighting official reactions to Freidman’s nomination, al-Quds reported sources close to Trump as claiming that Freidman’s nomination does not signal approval of settlement construction or the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem.

Al-Ayyam reported Secretary-General of the PLO’s Executive Committee Saeb Erekat as warning that moving the embassy would be “the destruction of the peace process.”

He was also reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida as warning that moving the embassy and Israel’s annexation of West Bank settlements “would send this region down the path of something that I call chaos, lawlessness and extremism.”

Al-Hayat al-Jadida and al-Quds said the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has decided to close UNRWA-run schools in three Palestinian camps in the West Bank for hoisting the Palestinian flag.

Spotlighted outgoing UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s remarks on the so-called “Regularization Bill”, al-Quds and al-Ayyam reported him as urging Israeli lawmakers to reconsider the bill that would retroactively legalize settlement outposts on private Palestinian land across the West Bank.

He was also reported in al-Ayyam as clarifying the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip have been under Israeli occupation since 1967 and describing the situation in the besieged Gaza Strip as extremely sensitive and volatile.

Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida said Israeli forces attacked Palestinian and international protestors at weekly Friday marches across the West Bank, causing many to suffer from tear gas inhalation.

They also said Israeli troops conducted multiple raids across Jerusalem district, sparking clashes with local Palestinians.

Moreover, al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida spotlighted the critical deterioration in the health of detainees Anas Shadid and Ahmad Abu Farah, who have been on hunger strike for over 80 days.

Al-Quds reported chairman of the prisoner affairs’ committee Issa Qaraqe‘ saying that the Israeli Supreme Court had refused to hold an urgent hearing on an appeal to release both hunger strikers, while al-Hayat al-Jadida said such a hearing would be held on Sunday.

Besides, al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said Netanyahu has instructed officials to demolish Palestinian homes in Arab towns in northern and southern Israel as well as in East Jerusalem.

They explained the move is intended to appease settlers for the expected demolition of the illegal West Bank settlement outpost of Amona.

Moreover, al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Nablus governor Akram Rjoub as stating that the last nine suspects for the August shooting in Nablus that left two Palestinian security officers dead and four others injured have turned themselves over to the Palestinian security services.

K.F./M.K.