Newspapers review: Killing 18 people in Flash flood in Jordan focus of dailies

The killing of at least 18 Jordanians, including several students under age 14, when a flash flood swept away their bus during a school outing near the Dead Sea in Jordan dominated the front page headlines in Palestinian dailies on Friday.

The dailies reported that 18 Jordanians, mostly from students and teachers, were killed when a flash flood and torrential rains swept away their school bus near the Dead Sea. Al-Ayyam added that 35 others were injured due to the flash floods in the Dead Sea area.

According to al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida, King Abdullah II of Jordan cancelled a trip to Bahrain ]in order to follow the rescue operations[.

The dailies also reported in this regard that President Mahmoud Abbas expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and Jordan.

According to al-Quds, a child drowned in a flash flood near the Bedouin town of Kuseifi, east of Beer al-Sabe (Beersheva) in southern Israel.

On the other hand, al-Ayyam highlighted Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in its main front page news item.

It explained that Israeli warplanes carried out strikes toward three sites belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad across the besieged Gaza Strip, no injuries were reported.

Furthermore, al-Quds reported that renewed clashes erupted in the Palestinian refugee camp of Mieh Mieh in southern Lebanon.

The dailies added that Israeli forces injured a number of Palestinians during raids across the West Bank.

Israeli forces reportedly shot and injured two Palestinians during a raid that triggered confrontations in Duheisha refugee camp, south of Bethlehem. They also injured at least 11 others with rubber-coated steel bullets during a raid into Abu Dis town, east of Jerusalem.

According to al-Hayat al-Jadida, Israeli troops conducted multiple overnight raids across the West Bank, detaining 20 Palestinians.

Highlighting other Israeli assaults and violations, al-Quds and al-Ayyam said that Israeli military conducted drills near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

According to al-Ayyam, Israeli occupation authorities sealed off a Palestinian-owned house under renovation in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida added in this regard that Israeli police stormed the residence where the Palestinian Governor of Jerusalem Adnan Gheith is placed under house arrest.

Additionally, al-Quds and al-Ayyam said that US Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Michael Lynk called for the international community to enforce annexation provisions of international law against Israel to halt their “annexation” of the West Bank.

Moreover, al-Quds reported the Grand Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Hussein denouncing the Israeli police assault against Coptic monks in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem.

It reported Israeli Jewish lawmaker Yehudah Glick calling upon Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu to ]send the Waqf people back to Jordan[ and apply full Israeli sovereignty to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount.

Regarding ongoing forced displacement of Palestinians in Jerusalem, al-Quds said that Israeli Jewish settler organizations and companies have presented plans involving the construction of large-scale settlement project in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

According to al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has approved a preliminary reading of a proposed legislation that would forbid family visits to jailed members of the Hamas movement.

Al-Quds published a report exploring the implications of the US administration’s decision to downgrade the status of its diplomatic mission to the Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem and place it under the authority of the US embassy to Israel.

Yet, al-Ayyam covered Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi’s statements indicating that the Palestinian people was left alone confronting the apartheid regime.

Besides to that, al-Hayat al-Jadida said that Fatah parliamentary bloc, head by member of Fatah Central Committee Azzam al-Ahmad, discussed a recommendation to disband the Palestinian Legislative Council, the controversial Social Security Law and reconciliation.

It added that Education Minister Sabri Saidam launched a campaign against Israeli policies targeting the Palestinian education system in Jerusalem.

Regionally, al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said that the Council of Arab Arab Environment Ministers had adopted a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem as the Capital of Arab Environment 2019.