RAMALLAH, May 18, 2017 (WAFA) – The condition of Palestinian prisoners who have entered their second month of hunger strike demanding their basic rights hit the front page headlines in the local Palestinian dailies on Thursday.
The three dailies reported head of the Prisoners’ Affairs Committee Issa Qaraqe saying Israeli Prisons Service (IPS) transferred all hunger strikers from dozens of Israeli prisons to three prisons that are close to Israeli hospitals.
Al-Quds added Israeli military has recruited doctors and paramedics who would deal with the hunger strikers should their health condition deteriorates further.
It added several Palestinians were shot and injured and others suffocated during clashes with Israeli forces in the Jerusalem district refugee camp of Qalandiya, Jenin refugee camp, and the Nablus district refugee camp of Askar.
Al-Ayyam explained Israeli forces shot and injured two Palestinians with live rounds during a raid of Jenin refugee camp.
It added Israeli settlers assaulted Palestinian shepherds and Israeli forces raided Bardala village in the northern Jordan Valley.
Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida said hundreds of Palestinians took part in the funeral of 16-year-old Fatima Hjeiji, who was shot dead by Israeli forces following an alleged stabbing attempt in the Old City of Jerusalem on May 7.
The dailies said President Mahmoud Abbas briefed Arab ambassadors to India and members of India’s Congress Party on the latest developments in relation to prisoners’ hunger strike.
Al-Quds reported deputy Hamas chief Mousa Abu Marzouq saying Hamas does not introduce itself as a substitute for any one, referring to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
It also reported him asserting the armed wing of Hamas, al-Qassam Brigades, is subject to the political decisions taken by various Hamas institutions.
Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stressed the importance of launching serious negotiations based on the two-state solution.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki applauding the position of US officials who refused to be accompanied by Israeli officials during a visit to al-Buraq (the Western Wall) in East Jerusalem.
It reported Director of Operations for UNRWA Bo Shack in Gaza warning the situation in the besieged coastal enclave was extremely tragic.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida had a story about a Bethlehem area village council naming a woman as head of council. It said the new council in the village of al-Masara, south of Bethlehem, which won without elections since only one list was submitted, agreed to name Fatima Breijieh, 60, as head of the council. Breijieh is a known activist and has led protests against Israeli settlements and land grab.
Al-Ayyam said the Preventive Security arrested a number of government employees in Nablus on suspicion they gave out forged receipts claiming they were issued by the Minister of Health.
K.F./M.K.
