RAMALLAH, Tuesday, December 04, 2018 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas’ official visit to the Italian capital, Rome, and meetings with officials hit the front page headlines in Palestinian Arabic dailies on Tuesday.
Al-Quds reported that Abbas briefed Pope Francis and his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella on the latest developments in Palestine.
Al-Ayyam said that Abbas held a series of meetings in Rome and the Vatican, as Pope Francis underscored the importance of recognizing and preserving the identity of Jerusalem.
A Vatican statement reportedly said: “Particular attention was reserved for the status of Jerusalem, underlining the importance of recognizing and preserving its identity and the universal value of the holy City for the three Abrahamic religions,” referring to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
Meanwhile, al-Hayat al-Jadida said that Abbas thanked Pope Francis for his positions supportive of the Palestinian people and question.
The spate of demolitions of Palestinian structures also dominated the front page headlines in the dailies.
They explained that Israeli occupation authorities demolished residential structures and animal barns in the northern Jordan Valley village of Fasayel, north of Jericho.
Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida added that Israeli forces delivered demolition notices for three residential structures in Umm al-Khir village, east of the southern West Bank town of Yatta.
Additionally, the dailies highlighted an Israeli military raid into Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, resulting in the suffocation cases.
According to al-Ayyam, a total of 30 Palestinians were injured as Israeli forces suppressed a naval march setting off from the Beit Lahia town in the northern besieged Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, al-Quds spotlighted the fraudulent sale of a plot of land, adjacent to the US embassy in Jerusalem.
Regarding the situation in Khan al-Ahmar, al-Ayyam said that Israeli occupation authorities issued a military order extending the period of the closure of roads leading to the village, east of Jerusalem, until the middle of January 2019.
Al-Quds noted in this regard that the Palestinian villagers refused to receive the order which seeks to seize their lands.
Highlighting US congressional efforts to legislate against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, al-Quds said the US Congress is getting prepared to pass a law that would criminalize BDS and imprison BDS activists.
According to al-Ayyam, scores of Israeli settlers forced their way into East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, while others erected a candelabrum on the Ibrahimi Mosque in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
Yet, al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported that Fatah Advisory Board is scheduled to hold its first session on Sunday December 9, 2018 in Ramallah.
They added that Jordan has decided to grant Gazans holding temporary Jordanian passports the right to own apartments and register their diesel vehicles in their names.
According to al-Quds and al-Ayyam, a Gaza military court has sentenced six people to death for “collaborating” with Israel.
Al-Ayyam said that settlers punctured the tires of Palestinian vehicles to the south of Nablus.
Furthermore, al-Hayat al-Jadida said that the Anti-Wall and Settlement Committee has secured an Israeli decision approving a plan to build Challenge 5 School in Beit Ta‘mar village, east of Bethlehem.
It reported Secretary-General of Fatah Central Committee Jibril Rajoub stressing that the issue of securing the release of Palestinians held in Israeli detention and taking care of their families is a national duty and a sacred duty.
K.F.
