Israeli demolitions in occupied Jerusalem focus of dailies

The demolition of dozens of Palestinian-owned shops in the East Jerusalem’s Shufat refugee camp dominated the front page headlines in Palestinian Arabic dailies on Thursday. The papers printed pictures of Israeli bulldozers demolishing the structures.

Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported that Israeli bulldozers demolished 20 Palestinian-owned shops in the camp and al-Ayyam said that Israeli occupation authorities demolished 16 Palestinian-owned shops located on the main road in the camp.

The demolished structures reportedly constituted the main source of livelihood for some 60 Palestinian families. They were demolished under the pretext of lacking Israeli building permits.

Al-Quds reported Head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Department of Refugee Affairs Ahmad Abu Holy condemning the demolitions and warning that targeting Shufat refugee camp would escalate the situation.

On the other hand, al-Quds reported that US President Donald Trump has postponed rolling out his Mideast plan, dubbed deal of the century, until 2019, a story that was also covered in al-Ayyam.

Al-Quds and al-Ayyam also spotlighted Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shakid’s statements describing Trump’s plan as “a waste of time.”

Highlighting detention raids, al-Quds reported that Israeli forces raided the northern West Bank town of Deir al-Ghusoun, north of Tulkarm, as part of an ongoing manhunt for Ashraf Naalweh, ransacking dozens of homes and shops.

Naalweh, 23, is the main suspect of the killing of two Israeli settlers in the illegal Israeli settlement of Barkan on October 7.

It added that Israeli forces detained a number of Palestinians, including lawmaker Ahmad Attoun, during multiple overnight raids across the West Bank.

Additionally, al-Quds and al-Ayyam spotlighted Egyptian efforts to establish ceasefire in Gaza and achieve intra-Palestinian reconciliation.

They explained that two high-ranking Hamas delegations headed to Cairo to hold talks with senior Egyptian officials on reconciliation.

Moreover, al-Quds said that a conference called “Hebron First” is scheduled next week to be convened at the Israeli parliament to call for the immediate evacuation of Israeli settlers from Hebron, in the south of the occupied West Bank.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida highlighted a meeting between President Mahmoud Abbas and a delegation from Hebron during which the president said the people of Hebron are the frontline in defending Palestinian rights.

Spotlighting ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, al-Ayyam said that Israel’s Supreme Court has approved the displacement of 700 Palestinians from Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood in order to turn their homes over to Jewish settlers.