RAMALLAH, April 12, 2018 (WAFA) – The speech delivered by President Mahmoud Abbas during the ninth annual Islamic Beit al-Maqdes International Conference in Ramallah and concern about a possible US strike in Syria dominated the front page headlines in Palestinian dailies on Thursday.

Abbas was reported in al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida stating that the Palestinian people have been facing a conspiracy targeting their cause, rights and capital that started more than 100 years ago with the Balfour Declaration.

Dismissing talk about establishing a Palestinian state in Jordan, Abbas was reported in al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida stating: “In Palestine and Jordan, we are one people in two states and we will never accept an alternative homeland.”

Citing the US administration’s flagrant bias towards Israel, he was reported in the dailies stating: “We are not expecting anything from them. We won’t accept anything from them.”

He was also reported in al-Quds reiterating his call for holding an international conference to come up with a multilateral mechanism for sponsoring future Palestinian-Israeli talks.

He was also reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida stating: “No Palestinian, Arab, Muslim or Christian was born or will be born who is going to compromise on Jerusalem.”

Furthermore, the dailies highlighted US President Donald Trump’s threats to hit Syria and Russian demands that the US respects the sovereignty of Syria in what appears to be a major escalation of the chance of conflict between the two superpowers.

In a different story, the dailies said the Egyptian authorities have decided to open Rafah border crossing with Gaza for three days starting Thursday.

Al-Quds reported that dozens of Israeli Jewish settlers held provocative tours of East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and escalating tension.

It added that Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian commercial structure under construction near Qalandia military checkpoint, north of Jerusalem.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida and al-Ayyam added that Israeli police demolished two Palestinian homes in Abu Ghoush village, west of Jerusalem.

Al-Ayyam said that Israeli forces shot and injured a number of Palestinians to the east of the besieged Gaza Strip and across the West Bank. According to al-Hayat al-Jadida, eight Palestinians were injured by Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

Al-Ayyam added that Israeli artillery shelled several “observation points” to the east of Gaza.

According to al-Quds, Trump’s administration has finalized the so-called “deal of the century” and is contemplating how to introduce it and the time to do so.

Highlighting US State Department’s statement that Yasser Murtaja had been vetted under US government guidelines, al-Quds said that the State Department has refuted Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s allegations that Murtaja was a member of Hamas.

Murtaja, a 30-year-old Palestinian journalist with the Gaza-based Ain Media agency, was shot dead by Israeli forces in Khuza‘a along Gaza border on Friday.

Al-Quds reported that the poor in the besieged Gaza Strip are concerned over the deterioration of the humanitarian situation.

Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida said that the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and UNDP signed the $10 million second annex of an agreement on Gaza housing reconstruction.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida republished AFP’s report titled “Gazan who says was shot in Israeli sniper video denies posing threat.”

Al-Ayyam reported that Dublin’s mayor Mícheál Mac Donncha visited Ramallah, circumventing an Israeli ban.

K.F./M.K.