RAMALLAH, June 23, 2018 (WAFA) – The new round in the March of Return protests at the Gaza border with Israel and the large number of Palestinian casualties resulting from Israeli army gunfire were highlighted on the front page of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies on Saturday.
The three papers said over 200 Palestinians were injured from Israeli gunfire, more than 40 of them were hit by live ammunition and at least seven were reported in critical condition.
Al-Ayyam quoted UN official Nikolay Mladenov saying it is time to lift the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza since 2006.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida included in its main front page story on this subject Israeli violations in the occupied West Bank, such as army crackdown on the West Bank protests mainly in Kufr Qaddoum, near Qalqilya in the north of the West Bank, and Dheiehsh refugee camp in Bethlehem in the south. It also said the army ordered 21 Palestinian families to leave their homes in the Jordan Valley so that soldiers can play their war games in the vicinity of their homes, as well as settlers torching West Bank fields near Nablus in the north destroying hundreds of olive trees and large area of farm land.
Al-Quds dedicated its main front page story to efforts by the United States to impose its so-called “deal of the century” on the region and the trip two US officials, Jarod Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, are currently making to the region to sell their plan, which is rejected in total by the Palestinians and who are boycotting the US due to its recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.
The paper said it had interviewed Kushner on the deal but said it will publish the full interview in its Sunday issue.
Al-Ayyam reported as well on the US moves and said, based on Israeli media reports, that the deal of the century assumes keeping all the holy places in Jerusalem in Israeli hands, no removal of settlements while the capital of Palestine will be in Abu Dis, an East Jerusalem neighborhood located beyond the Israeli apartheid wall.
It said the administration of US President Donald Trump will publish the deal depending on developments on the ground in the region.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida quoted Fatah describing the US deal as “a conspiracy” that is being pushed under a humanitarian guise, but said it will not pass.
Al-Quds reported on the Israeli settlement activities in the occupied land and said 459 new settlement units are going to be built in the settlement-turned-city of Ma’ale Adumim, east of Jerusalem, and that 450 units in Givat Zeev, a large settlement northeast of Jerusalem, are being dwelled.
It said Lebanon exposed an Israeli spying system inside its southern territory.
It also said Gazans wounded by Israel are being transferred to hospitals in Cairo.
Al-Ayyam said well-known Israeli lawyer, Felicia Langer, who was among the first to defend Palestinians in Israeli courts, has died at age 88 in Germany, where she lived after leaving Israel escaping harassment and threats from right-wing Israelis.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida said President Mahmoud Abbas sent his condolences for the death of Langer.
It reported on a letter by British intellectuals saying that boycotting Israel is not anti-Semitism.
The papers also said Prince William is going to start a historic visit to the region on Monday.
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