Tensions are high in the wake of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Israeli troops opened fire across the Gaza Strip border Friday at Palestinians protesting President Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, killing at least one protester, the Gaza Health Ministry reported.
Dozens of other Palestinians were reported injured in the border clashes, which the Israeli army described as rioting.
Disturbances and demonstrations also broke out in the West Bank and Jerusalem on Friday as Palestinians protested Trump’s move, which also included a pledge to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters clashed Friday in the West Bank cities of Bethlehem when Muslims staged demonstrations after Friday prayers.
Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of the West Bank and Jerusalem Dec. 7 to protest President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. (Reuters)
The Health Ministry in Gaza said Mohammad al-Masri, 30, was fatally shot by the Israeli army east of Khan Younis in the enclave. It said that at least 35 people were injured in the clashes.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that 245 people were injured in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The Israeli army said in a statement about the Gaza clashes that during “riots” by Palestinian protesters, “soldiers fired selectively towards two main instigators and hits were confirmed.”
Earlier, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said units were beefed up in and around the Old City of Jerusalem. However, he said there were no restrictions on Muslim worshipers entering to pray at the holy Haram al-Sharif compound, home of the renowned al-Aqsa Mosque.
At the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, thousands of worshipers filed in for the midday Friday prayers, which ended without major incident.
Some scuffles broke out between demonstrators and border police near the Austrian hospice in Jerusalem’s Old City.
“We usually come on Fridays, but today has special meaning,” said Noor Shaheen, 24, as she left prayers. She said the fact that Israeli authorities had not put restrictions on who could come to prayers on Friday had eased tensions, adding that Palestinians in Jerusalem were weary of protests.
“We are tired,” she said. “It’s hard to make action without thinking of the reaction.”
Ahmed Aduelhawa, 60, said Palestinians in Jerusalem did not want to give Israel “an excuse to humiliate us” and that Trump’s declaration “doesn’t matter.” He said: “The future of Jerusalem isn’t in Trump’s hands, not in Abbas’s hands, not in Netanyahu’s hands, it’s in God’s hands.”
Clashes were later reported in the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah.
In the Gaza Strip, thousands of Palestinians demonstrated after the end of Friday prayers, and clashes broke out between hundreds of youths and Israeli forces along the border between the enclave and Israel.
The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, staged military parades in which masked men wearing military uniforms carried rifles and shells.
The participants chanted slogans against the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, calling for a revolt against Israel to “liberate Jerusalem from occupation.”
Fathi Hammad, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said at a demonstration in the northern Gaza Strip: “Today we declare an uprising against the occupation, and there are no half solutions. We call upon all the free people of the world to boycott America and Israel, and we call on the Arab and Islamic countries to take a serious stand and support our people.”
On Thursday, Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli forces in Jerusalem, Ramallah and other places in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In some places, demonstrators burned American flags and posters of Trump. The Palestinian Red Crescent said that more than 100 people were injured.
The United Nations Security Council is expected to meet Friday after eight countries on the 15-member body requested a briefing on the U.S. decision, which the Palestinians claim breaches U.N. resolutions and international law.
Following Trump’s speech on Wednesday, the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza urged its followers to ignite a third intifada, or uprising, against Israel. Palestinian factions in the West Bank called for three days of rage, and the Palestinian Authority ordered a general strike, shuttering all its public institutions.
Trump’s announcement that he would move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and his declaration that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital reversed a decades-old U.S. policy.
Although it is unclear how Trump’s recognition will play out in practice, any perceived changes to the status of the city — holy to Christians, Muslims and Jews and struggled over for millennia — is a deeply charged issue that resonates beyond the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
The backlash against Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital rippled across the wider region, with hundreds of demonstrators gathering outside the U.S. Embassy in neighboring Jordan holding placards reading “Decision Rejected” and “No to U.S. arrogance.” Criticism continued to flow in from governments in the Middle East, Europe and beyond, as U.S. friends and adversaries alike voiced disapproval and alarm.
Turkey’s president predicted that the region would ignite in a “ring of fire,” while European leaders reiterated their opposition to the policy, and 86-year-old Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu declared, “God is weeping.”
On the edge of the Palestinian city of Ramallah on Thursday, Israeli forces fired dozens of rounds of tear gas and stun grenades at hundreds of Palestinian protesters airing their anger over Trump’s statement, moving quickly to disperse the crowd.
“This will be bad,” said an ambulance driver in Ramallah as young men burned tires and pelted the soldiers with stones. Emergency vehicles ferried the injured away.
In some places, notably Gaza, protesters set fire to images of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and to U.S. and Israeli flags.
In response to three projectiles fired at its territory from Gaza, Israeli jets and tanks struck two Hamas military sites in the strip, the Israeli army said in a statement.
How long the protests will last remains unclear. Some Palestinians said they felt emboldened after a perceived victory last summer that followed two weeks of protests over metal detectors installed at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called for a new uprising in the Palestinian territories and declared Friday a day of rage.
“Tomorrow should be a day of rage and the beginning of a broad movement for an uprising that I call the intifada of freedom of Jerusalem,” he said.
He called on the Palestinian Authority to halt security coordination with Israel and “enable the resistance in the occupied West Bank to respond to this blatant aggression.”
Israel’s army said it was preparing for an increase in violence in the coming days and had increased its strength in the West Bank, reinforcing its combat intelligence and territorial defense units. Israeli police said three people were arrested in connection with “disturbances” near Damascus Gate, a main portal for Jerusalem’s Old City.
U.S. institutions in the region were also preparing for possible violent fallout. The State Department restricted travel for U.S. government employees in Jerusalem and the West Bank, warning U.S. citizens to avoid crowded areas.
After Trump’s announcement, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the United States could no longer be a fair mediator in the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. He said it would galvanize the Palestinian struggle for independence.
In Israel, however, the mood was buoyant, with government ministers and pundits declaring a diplomatic victory for the Jewish state and for Netanyahu.
Netanyahu heralded Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as a “historic statement,” and in a video published on his Facebook page, he likened Trump to British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour, whose declaration 100 years ago led the way to the creation of Israel.
“President Trump has always linked himself to the history of our capital,” he said. “His name will now float along with other names in the context of the glorious history of Jerusalem and our people.”
Hazem Balousha in Gaza contributed to this report.
