RAMALLAH – Heightened Israeli measures, particularly the installation of metal detectors at the entrances to East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, dominated the Tuesday front page headlines in local Palestinian dailies.
Al-Quds and al-Ayyam said Israeli police clashed with Palestinian worshippers who performed night prayer at Lions’ Gate (Bab al-Asbat), firing rubber-coated steel bullets, concussion grenades and tear gas canisters at them.
Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida added Palestinian worshippers continued to perform prayers at the alleys of the Old City of Jerusalem to express their rejection of entering the holy compound passing through the newly installed metal detectors.
Al-Ayyam added Israeli authorities closed the mosque compound to Muslim worshippers, while they reopened it to Jews.
Al-Quds said Jewish settlers were free to roam the compound as there were no Waqf-appointed guards at the site.
It reported Palestinian member of Israeli parliament, the Knesset, Ahmad Tibi slamming the Israeli measures as a “dangerous precedent” and a “change in the long-standing status quo.”
Al-Quds added Palestinian Jerusalemite officials, mainly the Islamic endowment (Waqf) that runs Al-Aqsa, demanded that Israel rescind its siege measures.
It added the US State Department has barred its employees and their families from visiting Jerusalem’s Old City due to the tense situation there following the Israeli police measures.
Moreover, the three dailies reported Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, who killed a wounded Palestinian in Hebron, was released from prison and placed under house arrest.
Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Israeli bulldozers demolished a Palestinian-owned home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Zaayem.
The dailies added Israel seized 70 dunums of Palestinian land belonging to Jab’a village, northwest of Bethlehem, in the southern West Bank.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida said Israeli troops assaulted Palestinian worshippers, including Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouti, during clashes in East Jerusalem and al-Ezariyya.
The dailies covered President Mahmoud Abbas four-day state visit to China where he is expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Al-Quds added Abbas would discuss recent developments in the occupied Palestinian territories with Jinping.
Quoting the Haaretz Israeli daily, al-Ayyam said the Israeli High Court of Justice has ruled that Palestinians owning Jordan Valley land that was appropriated by Israeli military and given to settlers should enter compensation talks with the settlers.
It added the Hamas movement is looking forward to gaining a foothold in Algeria.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported Palestinian ambassador to Egypt Jamal Shobaki saying Jordan has employed all of its diplomatic tools to confront any attempts to change the long-standing status quo in East Jerusalem.
(WAFA)
