RAMALLAH, Saturday, May 18, 2019 (WAFA) – The three Palestinian Arabic dailies highlighted in their issue today the attendance of over 200,000 Muslims the second Friday of Ramadan prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem despite the very hot weather conditions.
They printed pictures on their front page of the thousands of worshippers filling the huge plaza of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound with the Dome of Rock mosque visible in the background.
They said a Palestinian in his 60s died of heart attack at an Israeli army checkpoint in Bethlehem as he was trying to get to Al-Aqsa Mosque to attend the Friday prayers. Tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians took the opportunity of Israeli army easing in their movement during the Ramadan Fridays to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.
Al-Quds and al-Ayyam dailies said the organizers of the weekly Friday March of Return protests on the Gaza border with Israel have cancelled yesterday’s events due to the hot weather conditions and the fast in this month of Ramadan.
Al-Quds said, however, in its main front page story that dozens of Palestinians were hurt by Israeli army gunfire and teargas grenades and from attacks by settlers in the occupied West Bank, particularly in the villages of Kufr Qaddoum and Nilin.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida and al-Ayyam said a Palestinian was shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers in the south of the West Bank as Israeli settlers went on a rampage in the northern West Bank village of Assira destroying Palestinian property and setting fields on fire without any interference from the Israeli army.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida said in a report that the Israeli judiciary covers up Israeli soldiers and settlers’ crimes against Palestinian civilians.
It said that the government introduced meat of 25,000 butchered sheep into the Gaza Strip to feed its population during Ramadan. The meat was a gift from Saudi Arabia to Gaza.
It also reported on the meeting of Foreign Minister Riyad Malki with British Labor Party members in London.
Al-Ayyam said the Israel Prisons Service is stalling in implementing its agreement with the Palestinian prisoners that led to ending their hunger strike in April by delaying installation of public telephones in the prisons.
Al-Quds said 5-year-old Aisha Louloo, from Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, died alone in a hospital in Jerusalem following a complicated brain surgery. None of her family members were allowed by Israel to be on her side in hospital as applications by her family members to accompany her to Jerusalem were denied.
The paper quoted Palestine’s ambassador to Russia, Abdul Hafiz Noufal, saying in Moscow that the Palestinian Authority is ready to discuss confederation with Jordan after independence.
The three papers also touched on other Arab and international news on their front page.
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