RAMALLAH, Friday, August 23, 2019 (WAFA) – The understanding with Israel on the restoration of overdue fuel tax withheld in recent months dominated the headlines in Friday’s issue of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies.

Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Palestinian Minister for Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh announcing that the Palestinian Authority (PA) retroactively restored the overdue fuel tax revenues, dubbed as the Blue Tax, that were deducted by Israel.

The PA recovered the fuel tax revenues that were deducted by Israel for the past seven months.

Al-Ayyam printed a headline reading: Israel transfers ILS 2 billion in overdue monthly fuel tax to the PA, but the move does not signal an end to the financial crisis gripping the PA.

The dailies reported Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announcing that PA civil servants will receive 60 percent of their August salaries in addition to the 50 percent that remained unpaid from February salaries.

Additionally, the dailies reported that Israeli forces crushed a protest outside the Israeli military prison of Ofer near Ramallah in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida printed a photo showing two Israeli soldiers kidnapping an unconscious protestor outside Ofer.

The dailies added that Palestinians held a strike in the Jerusalem-district towns of Abu Dis and al-Eizariyya in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails.

According to al-Ayyam, Israeli forces conducted multiple overnight raids across the West Bank, detaining 19 Palestinians.

Highlighting the situation in the besieged coastal Gaza enclave, al-Quds said that a Palestinian was injured from Israeli gunfire on the northern Gaza border.

Al-Ayyam said that Israeli warplanes fired several missiles at a post in the southwest of Gaza city, as Israeli military vehicles infiltrated the eastern Juhr Ad-Dik area in the central Gaza Strip.

According to al-Hayat al-Jadida, Fatah condemns the arrest of several Fatah members by the Hamas-run “militias” in Gaza.

Al-Quds said that Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri revoked the residency status of two Palestinian prisoners from Jerusalem.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam highlighted the Israeli right-wing Yamina alliance’s plan to construct 113,000 new settler units in the northern West Bank, a step that would increase the number of settlers in the West Bank by a further half million.

Al-Ayyam added that Israeli settlers have started the construction of a new outpost in al-Farisiyeh area in the northern Jordan Valley.

According to al-Quds, Israeli police chased Palestinian worshippers inside East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and detained a Waqf-appointed guard besides to four others near Bab al-Rahma inside the mosque compound.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said that a Palestinian girl was run over by an Israeli settler to the southwest of Bethlehem in the southern West Bank.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported the family of prominent activist and pharmacist Tamer al-Sultan, who fled from Gaza to Bosnia and Herzegovina, appreciating President Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah movement’s role in securing the return of his body.

Regionally, al-Quds said that the Lebanese Council of Minister forms a committee in charge of examining the conditions of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Al-Ayyam said that the Palestine Committee of the Jordanian Parliament discussed a decision to allow Palestinians from Gaza to own property in Jordan.

It also reported that the Lebanese government forms a committee headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri to examine the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Lebanon’s envoy to the United Nations Amal Mudallali affirming that the absence of a settlement that gives rise to a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital “condemns the whole region to continuous conflict and bloodshed.”

Internationally, al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported French President Emmanuel Macron stating that he was not pinning his hopes on US President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan, dubbed deal of the century.

K.F.