Middle East tensions
Clashes erupt in West Bank, Gaza after U.S. pivot on Jerusalem
Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops across the West Bank and Gaza, and Muslim worshippers from Jordan to Indonesia poured into the streets after Friday prayers to protest President Donald Trump’s recognition of contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
At least one Palestinian was killed in skirmishes between protesters and Israeli troops along the Gaza border fence, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Dozens more were reported wounded in clashes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Protesters burned Israeli and U.S. flags or stomped on Trump posters in displays of anger.
In the West Bank, demonstrators torched heaps of tires, sending columns of thick black smoke rising over the cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem. Palestinian stone-throwers traded volleys in the streets with soldiers firing tear gas and rubber bullets.
The Israeli military reported protests at 30 locations across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and said Israeli forces arrested six people.
Red Crescent paramedics and Palestinian health officials reported 13 people wounded by live fire and 47 by rubber bullets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Dozens more suffered from tear gas inhalation, medics said.
Trump’s seismic policy shift on Jerusalem has angered Arabs and Muslims who view it as an expression of blatant pro-Israel bias on one of the region’s most explosive religious and political disputes.
Jerusalem is home to major Muslim and Christian shrines, as well as Judaism’s holiest site. The Israeli-annexed eastern sector is sought by the Palestinians as a future capital, while Israel says it won’t relinquish any part of Jerusalem.
Palestinian political groups had called for massive demonstrations Friday in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — lands captured by Israel in 1967 and sought for a Palestinian state.
Separately, the Gaza-based leader of the Islamic militant Hamas agitated for a third uprising against Israel.