From page one: "Nablus. Quds press. Residents of the town of al Dik, located southeast of Nablus, said that a few nights ago settlers shouted harsh words against the Prophet Mohammed, may the Creator have mercy on him and safeguard him, and against Arabs and Muslims. Witnesses said to a Quds press reporter, that the settlers appeared next to the junction of the settlement near the town, where there are IDF guards. Through loudspeakers, they started to call out curses against the Prophet Mohammed may he rest in peace, and against Arab and Muslim leaders and President Yasser Arafat. The calls aroused the anger of the residents. Palestinian leaders from Nablus spoke out against these provocations, saying that they reveal the racist side of the Jews."

Al Quds, April 13

An editorial: "Is the storming of the refugee camp in Khan Younis only the beginning of the plan (to provide security to Israeli citizens - D.S.)? Can he (Sharon) or any of the senior members of his government explain the connection between providing security to Israelis and the destruction of the houses of unarmed citizens, and the human and social life which flourished in those houses? Israel's prime minister owes the world a great many explanations about personal security - not only of the residents of the refugee camp, but of the entire Palestinian nation. He owes the international community a great many explanations about the personal security of the entire Palestinian nation, which is subject, day and night, to all types of suppression, humiliation, starvation, siege and shelling by all the weapons of the Israeli forces.

"There is a question which Sharon must answer, and which the international community must be responsible for. How can it be that the promise of security to one nation will come at the expense of the personal and collective security of another nation? And another and more pressing question for the international community: When will the silence and the inability to provide protection to the Palestinian nation end?"

Palestinian press agency WAFA, April 14 An op-ed signed by the political editor: "Sharon has extended the term of Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, who has used military force to kill Palestinians. Sharon has continued the daily killing of people, and has brought destruction on the Palestinians, their economy and their institutions and their sources of livelihood. This demonstrates an official and organized terrorist war, led by Mofaz in full coordination with Sharon. At the same time, Sharon has stuck to the same foolish idea that he will not meet with Arafat and will not renew negotiations before the Palestinian terror comes to an end ... the clever general, who destroyed the inhabitants of Sabra and Chatilla (the massacre of Palestinians in refugee camps in Lebanon during the Israeli occupation) and danced on the corpses of women and children, offers him only 42 percent of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as a grant, as though Palestine were his property, as though we were the strangers and the Israelis were the original population of Palestine.

"This cannot be the logic of a politician who as prime minister wants to lead his nation. This is the logic of a shortsighted person, who has failed to understand the facts of life, history, and even what is happening around him."

Al Ayyam, April 15 "Rafiah, by Muhammed al Baba. Hundreds of workers who have been harmed (the reference is to economic harm - D.S.) as a result of the Israeli siege and closure, yesterday held a meeting in front of the Rafiah district building, the legislative council and the municipality, and raised banners in Arabic and English, in which they demanded to be provided with a monthly income which will guarantee a living and which will enable them to live in dignity. The participants submitted to the governor of Rafiah and to the members of the legislative council letters signed by "injured workers," to be transmitted in their name to President Yasser Arafat. "(In the letters) they asked him to supply them with places of work and to give them decent assistance, in order to ensure that they will continue with the Intifada and will overcome the economic effects, which are a result of the Israeli closure and siege on the Palestinian nation, and which prevent them from working."

Al Hayat al Jadida, April 16 Front page headline: "A hotheaded settlers attack - (the settlers) swallowed dozens of dunam ... and the repelling of an attempt to break in through the Saladdin Gate; a barbaric shelling of residential neighborhoods in Hebron, Bethlehem, Khan Younis and Gaza.".