The visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Ramallah yesterday and remarks during the visit made by President Mahmoud Abbas were highlighted on the front page of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies published today.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida daily quoted the President saying “We hold the Israeli government responsible for what is happening today because of its practices that undermine the two-state solution.”
It also said the President met in his office with the heads of Jordanian and Egyptian intelligence prior to his meeting with Blinken.
Al-Quds daily quoted him saying Israel is undermining the two-state solution and that decisions were taken to protect the interests of the Palestinian people.
It also said that some US officials who traveled with Blinken are going to stay in the region to “contain the tension.”
It said protests against Blinken’s visit were held in Ramallah and in Gaza.
The third daily, al-Ayyam, said in the main front-page story headline that the president stressed to Blinken the need to end the occupation and the American official did not bring anything new with him.
It also said Blinken met representatives of the Palestinian civil society in Deir Dibwan, near Ramallah.
Al-Ayyam said residents of Jabal al-Mukabber, an East Jerusalem neighborhood, declared a general strike following the Israeli demolition of their homes and closed the entrances to their community to prevent the entry of Israeli occupation forces.
It said the army informed Palestinians living in the northern Jordan Valley to leave their homes under the pretext of carrying out military exercises.
It quoted British government documents saying that former US President George Bush wanted to oust the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during the Al-Aqsa Intifada.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida said the Unified National Leadership has affirmed the right of the Palestinian people to respond to the crimes of the occupation forces and settlers.
It said the Israel Prisoner Services is repressing Palestinian women prisoners and that the prisoners have decided to escalate the situation in the prisons.
Al-Quds said that the family of the Palestinian attacker, Khairy Alqam, was able to get a court order to release Alqam’s mother who has been in detention since last week. The decision says she should be expelled from her home to her brother’s home in Beit Hanina. An earlier court had ordered to keep her in detention until Thursday.
It said two soldiers were injured when hit by a vehicle south of Nablus and the Palestinian driver has turned himself in to the Israeli police saying it was an accident.
It also said settlers have carried out several attacks in the occupied West Bank and anti-Arab slogans were written on walls in the northern Israeli town of Safad.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency