RAMALLAH, February 14, 2017 (WAFA) – The three Palestinian Arabic dailies Tuesday highlighted the upcoming meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump scheduled February 15.

They covered the PLO’s Executive Committee’s meeting in their main news items and its rejection of the “Regularization law”.

It called upon the international community to categorically reject the law and the UN Security Council to assume its responsibility to defend its resolutions.

Al-Ayyam said in this regard Netanyahu refused to announce commitment to the two-state solution and would seek interim agreements with Palestinians.   

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam said Hamas elected Yahya Sinwar as the new head of its political bureau in Gaza to replace Ismail Haniyeh.

Highlighting escalating tensions in East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, al-Quds said Palestinian worshippers and the mosque guards foiled an Israeli police’s attempt to set up stalls in the mosque yards.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida quoted President of the Republic of Lebanon Michel Aoun as stating: “Israel seeks to obliterate Palestinian identity and territory”.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam reported UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as defending his choice of former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to head the UN mission to Libya after the US blocked the appointment.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said in this regard President Mahmoud Abbas discussed with Fayyad his appointment as head of the UN mission to Libya during a meeting in Ramallah.

They added Abbas and Head of the Central Elections Committee Hanna Nasser discussed the mechanisms to hold local municipal elections, scheduled on May 13.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam reported on Israeli President Reuven Rivlin as saying Israel should “annex” the West Bank and give Palestinians full citizenship.

Highlighting international repercussions of the approval of the so-called “Regularization Bill” by the Israeli parliament, the three dailies said German Chancellor Angela Merkel canceled a joint cabinet summit with Israel over the land grab law.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam said the Israeli government gave out a loan to settlers to build settlement outposts by mortgaging private Palestinian lands to which they falsely claimed rights.

Al-Quds said Israel opened by-pass Road 21, which connects the Israeli settlements of Ramat Shlomo and Pisgat Ze’ev in East Jerusalem, as a prelude for the construction of 1,690 new settler units.

It reported that Israeli forces delivered a demolition notice for three rooms in the East Jerusalem town of Hizma and stop-construction notices for Palestinian homes and sheds in the Nablus district town of Qusra.

K.F/M.H