RAMALLAH, March 9, 2017 (WAFA) – The visit of British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to Palestine and his meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas and Foreign Minister Riyad Malki was the focus of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies published Thursday.

Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida said Abbas told Johnson that Israel should halt settlement construction, assassination, incursions and detention of Palestinians in order to give peace a chance.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Johnson reiterating his country’s full commitment to the two-state solution and affirming the illegality of Israeli settlement construction.

The dailies reported Israeli parliament, the Knesset, passed in a preliminary reading the so-called “muazen bill,” which seeks to muffle Muslim call to prayer in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Palestinian members of Knesset slamming the bill as “racist” and “fascist” and affirming that Palestinians in Israel would not abide by it.

Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered freezing of plans to construct thousands of new settler units across the West Bank.

Al-Ayyam said the US State Department has announced that former US Consul General to Jerusalem Michael Ratney would handle the Middle East peace process.

Al-Quds said Israeli troops raided the East Jerusalem camp of Shufat and neighborhood of Issawiya as well as the Bethlehem district camp of Duheisha, sparking clashes and detaining a number of Palestinians.

It added Israeli police prevented the Islamic Endowment (Waqf) Department from replacing one of doors to Al-Aqsa Mosque damaged during of one many Israeli police raids against the Muslim holy site. Police arrested the mosque’s chief architect Bassam Hallaq for his responsibility of reconstructing the door and held him for few hours before releasing him.

It reported the Islamic Endowment (Waqf) Department slamming the vandalism of the chapel of the Ascension, in the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, and deciding to restore it at its expense.

Al-Ayyam said Allam Jarrar, 62, a leading member in the Palestinian National Initiative (al-Mubadara), passed away in his Jenin hometown. Jarrar was a physician and active in the Medical Relief Committees.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported an attorney representing the Palestinian Detainees Affairs Commission petitioned an Israeli court for the immediate release of the body of Basel al-Araj, an activist who was assassinated by Israeli forces during a predawn raid into the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

It added hunger-striking Palestinian detainee Muhammad al-Qiq was transferred to hospital after his medical condition significantly deteriorated.

It reported Israeli forces detained 16 Palestinians, including a woman, during predawn raids across the West Bank.

It also reported Israeli police raided an East Jerusalem hotel to stop a Palestinian cultural event on the occasion of the International Women’s Day.

K.F./M.K.