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Donald Trump move on status of Jerusalem sparks Palestinian protests

Hamas leader has called for a new armed uprising to demonstrate anger over the decision.

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Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops have erupted across the West Bank while demonstrators in Gaza burned Israeli and US flags after Donald Trump moved to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The leader of the Hamas militant group, which runs Gaza, called for a new armed uprising in a widespread show of anger over the US president’s move. In the West Bank, crowds of protesters set tyres on fire and threw stones at anti-riot troops.

In Bethlehem, troops fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse a crowd in clashes that could cloud the upcoming Christmas celebrations in the town of Jesus’s birth.

In Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government, protesters set tyres on fire, sending a thick plume of black smoke over the city.

The Palestinians seek Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, as a future capital. Palestinians closed their schools and shops on Thursday to begin three “days of rage” over Mr Trump’s decision.

Rallies were under way in other West Bank cities, and a demonstration was being held outside the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City. There were no serious casualties reported in Thursday’s clashes.

But Friday, the Muslim holy day, could provide an important test when Palestinians gather for weekly mass prayers.

(PA Graphics)
(PA Graphics)

In the Gaza Strip, Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyeh called on Palestinians to launch a new intifada, or uprising, against Israel on Friday.

“The American decision is an aggression on our people and a war on our sanctuaries,” he said, urging supporters “to be ready for any orders”. “We want the uprising to last and continue to let Trump and the occupation regret this decision,” he said.

Hamas, a group that seeks Israel’s destruction, killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks in the early 2000s. But the group’s capabilities are more limited now.

Gaza, Hamas’s stronghold, is closed by an Israeli blockade, while in the West Bank many of its members have been arrested. Nonetheless, it possesses a large arsenal of rockets capable of striking much of Israel.

A poster praising US president Donald Trump in Jerusalem (Ariel Schalit/AP)
A poster praising US president Donald Trump in Jerusalem (Ariel Schalit/AP)

Spontaneous protests sparked in Gaza overnight, with angry people burning tyres, American and Israeli flags and Trump posters.

The Israeli military said it would deploy several battalions to the West Bank ahead of Friday, while other troops have been put on alert to address “possible developments”.

The conflicting claims to Jerusalem, and especially its Old City, where sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites are located, lie at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

While Mr Trump’s decision had no impact on the city’s daily life, it carried deep symbolic meaning, and was seen as siding with Israel and an attempt to impose a solution on the Palestinians.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed the move (Sebastian Scheiner/AP)
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed the move (Sebastian Scheiner/AP)

Israel, which claims all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, has welcomed Mr Trump’s decision.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Mr Trump “bound himself forever” to the history of Jerusalem with the move and claimed other states are considering following suit.

“We are already in contact with other states that will make a similar recognition,” he said at the foreign ministry on Thursday.

Anger at the US has rippled across the Arab world. Saudi Arabia’s royal court, led by King Salman and his powerful son, condemned the Trump administration’s decision in a rare public rebuke by the US ally.

US embassies across much of the Middle East and parts of Africa warned American citizens of possible protests following Mr Trump’s move.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has suggested that with Mr Trump’s move, the US disqualified itself as mediator between Israelis and Palestinians, a role it has played exclusively in more than two decades of stop-and-go negotiations aimed at setting up a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

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