Newspapers Review: West Bank closure, casualties in clashes focus of dailies

News about the Israeli closure in the Palestinian territories for the Jewish holidays and the injuries during clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza hit the front pages of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies on Tuesday.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida, al-Quds and al-Ayyam said that the Israeli army has sealed off the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip starting from mid-night Tuesday until Wednesday evening as Jews mark Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).

The paper also reported that a number of Palestinians were injured as Israeli forces cracked down on a protest in the town of Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza Strip. They also added that clashes erupted with Israeli forces in West Bank cities as well.

President Mahmoud Abbas is set to visit France and Ireland and meet officials in these two countries ahead of his trip to New York later this month to attend the United Nations General Assembly meetings and address it on September 27, said al-Hayat al-Jadida and al-Ayyam.

The three dailies said that the Israeli authorities announced a plan for the expansion of an illegal settlement named Tina, to the south of Hebron in the south of the West Bank, that would lead to the expropriation of 260,000 square meters of Palestinian land in the town of Dahriyeh, in the district of Hebron.

Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida said that an Israeli court reversed on Monday a deportation order against French-American activist, professor and author Frank Romano after it had earlier decided to release him from prison and deport him after it accused him of disrupting police actions at the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem, which is facing imminent Israeli demolition to replace it by a Jewish settlement.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida said that a Fatah delegation arrived in Cairo, Egypt to discuss Hamas response on the Egyptian deal regarding ending the division.

Al-Quds said Hamas rejects reconciliation without accepting its conditions.

Al-Ayyam said in a report by its Gaza correspondent that the factions have rejected a proposal by the UN coordinator Nickolay Mladenov to increase supply of electric current in return for ending the March of Return protests at the borders with Israel.

Al-Quds reported on the meeting between Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and his Jordanian counterpart in Amman during which they discussed increasing trade and cooperation in several fields.

Al-Ayyam said Jordan agreed that Palestinians in Jerusalem will be able to renew their Jordanian passports at the Sharia court in Jerusalem.