Newspaper Review: Israeli escalation focus of dailies

News about the recent Israeli escalation in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem made headlines of the three Arabic Palestinian dailies on Sunday.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida, al-Quds and al-Ayyam said that Israeli police detained both colonel Jihad Faqeeh, 50, who heads the Jerusalem office of the Palestinian Intelligence, and the Governor of Jerusalem, Adnan Ghaith, in the town of Beit Hanina to the north of occupied Jerusalem.

No reason was given for the arrest.

Al-Ayyam and al-Quds also reported that two Palestinians were injured on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on the east of Rafah city in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Ayyam said that a group of extremist settlers threw rocks at farmers as they were harvesting their olive crops to force them to leave their lands in the village of Burin, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank. The farmers attempted to ward off the settlers, said witnesses.

The paper also said a Palestinian family nearly escaped death on Saturday after Israeli settlers attacked their car with stones while driving on a road between the West Bank cities of Nablus and Qalqilya.

According to the dailies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to postpone the evacuation and demolition of the village of Khan al-Ahmar. In response to that, Walid Assaf, chairman of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee, said that Palestinians will continue resisting in the area until they are officially informed about the news of the demolition delay.

President Mahmoud Abbas is going to start on Sunday a three-day visit to Oman at the invitation of Omani leader, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, said the dailies.

Palestine’s ambassador to Oman said the President will discuss with Sultan Qaboos several issues, mainly the latest Palestinian developments and the situation in Jerusalem, as well as bilateral relations and how to develop them.

Al-Quds said that an Egyptian security delegation headed by intelligence chief Abbas Kamel will be visiting the Gaza Strip next week.

Al-Ayyam said that White House denied reports that US President Donald Trump assigned anyone to meet with Palestinians.