RAMALLAH, February 23, 2017 (WAFA) – The demolition of a Palestinian home in East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina and serving demolition notices to Palestinian structures in the southern West Bank district of Hebron hit the front page headlines in Palestinian dailies on Thursday.
The dailies said bulldozers of the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem demolished a Palestinian home in Beit Hanina rendering its residents homeless.
The dailies also reported Israeli forces delivered demolition notices to dozens of Palestinian residential structures and a school in a number of Palestinian localities that comprise Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.
Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said Israeli forces ordered Palestinians in the village of Khirbet Tana in Nablus district to evacuate their homes to make room for Israeli military drills.
They added Israeli troops detained a total of 21 Palestinians in predawn raids across the West Bank.
Al-Quds reported the United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU) Missions expressed their concerns over the ongoing Israeli policy of demolishing Palestinian homes and structures in West Bank Area C.
Al-Ayyam said UN officials warned against the threat of demolition and forcible displacement faced by Palestinians in the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, located in Area C on the outskirts of East Jerusalem.
Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said President Mahmoud Abbas started a three-day official visit to Lebanon.
Al-Quds reported on Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah launching the Palestine National Policy Agenda for 2017-2022.
Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Amnesty International as saying Israel has committed war crimes, executions and human rights violations against Palestinians.
Al-Quds reported Israeli police as backtracking on initial claims that Yacoub Abu al-Qeean, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and a math teacher, carried out a car-ramming attack when he was shot dead by Israeli police during demolition of the Bedouin community of Umm al-Hiran in the southern Naqab desert.
Highlighting his meeting with his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney, the three dailies reported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state and suggesting Palestinian autonomous rule instead.
Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said Israeli occupation authorities denied five European parliamentarians entry into the besieged Gaza Strip.
They said the Central Elections Commission (CEC) announced that it was postponing voter registration for local municipal elections for a week to give Hamas time to decide whether or not it is going to allow elections in Gaza as well.
They said Nael Barghouthi, who was until his release in 2011 in a prisoners exchange deal the longest serving Palestinian prisoner in Israel, had his previous sentence of life in prison plus 18 years reinstated by an Israeli court.
Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Austria as waning against the consequences of abandoning the two-state solution.
K.F./M.K.
