Newspapers Review: Israeli army killing of a boy in Gaza focus of dailies

The Israeli army killing of a 15-year-old boy in the Gaza Strip and injury of more than 20 others during night protests in the northern Gaza Strip was highlighted on the front page of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies on Thursday.

The papers also reported on arson by Jewish settlers in Hebron and Turmosayya in the south and north of the West Bank during which a house was set on fire in the old town of Hebron and olive trees chopped down in Turmosayya.

Settlers also took over a Palestinian house in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan after kicking its Palestinian residents out, said the papers.

Al-Quds also said the Israeli custodian in charge of the so-called “absentee property,” in reference to homes and land owned by Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, is leasing Palestinian land out to Jewish settler groups.

It also said Israeli police banned an event to commemorate a decease Palestinian teacher planned to be held in East Jerusalem.

Al-Ayyam said the Israeli army raided Amari refugee camp in Ramallah and took measurements of the Abu Hmeid residence in preparation to demolish it because a family member was involved in the killing of a soldier during an army raid of the camp in the summer. The Abu Hmeid residence is a four-story building.

The paper said the United States is holding Hamas responsible for the Israeli army killing of Palestinians in Gaza, while al-Quds said the US has withdrawn from a protocol related to the International Court of Justice because of Palestine’s complaint to the court.

On the reconciliation matter, al-Ayyam said a Hamas delegation has concluded talks in Cairo without any specific results.

It said Gaza employees of the United Nations agency serving Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, observed a general strike for the second day in a row and it quoted the head of UNRWA operations saying the strike affects services provided to the refugees in the Gaza Strip.

It said the American recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, George Smith, is opposed to Zionism and supports boycott of Israel.

It quoted the Israeli Minister of Culture Meri Regev telling German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is on a visit to Israel, to worry about problems in her own country and not of those in Khan al-Ahmar village, which Israel wants to destroy and displace its Palestinian residents.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida quoted President Mahmoud Abbas telling a visiting Jordanian official that it is important to coordinate positions between Jordan and Palestine on all issues.

It said the president received an invitation to visit South Africa.

It said an Israeli minister is leading a campaign to get the head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, Jibril Rajoub, removed from the Olympic Committee.