Hamas calls for Palestinian uprising over Trump’s Jerusalem plan
JERUSALEM/GAZA, (Reuters) - The Islamist group Hamas urged Palestinians yesterday to abandon peace efforts and launch a new uprising against Israel in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as its capital.
Palestinian factions called for a “Day of Rage” today, and a wave of protest in the West Bank and Gaza yesterday brought clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops. At least 31 people were wounded by Israeli gunfire and rubber bullets, medics said.
The Israeli military said an aircraft and a tank had targeted two posts belonging to militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip after three rockets were launched at Israel.
A jihadist Salafi group in Gaza called the Al-Tawheed Brigades - which does not heed the call from the enclave’s dominant force, Hamas, to desist from firing rockets - claimed responsibility for the launches.
The military said it was reinforcing troops in the occupied West Bank.
Some protesters threw rocks at soldiers and others chanted: “Death to America! Death to the fool Trump!”
Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy on Wednesday by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, angering the Arab world and upsetting Western allies.
The status of Jerusalem, home to sites considered holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians, is one of the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
“We should call for and we should work on launching an intifada (Palestinian uprising) in the face of the Zionist enemy,” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech in Gaza.
Today’s “Day of Rage,” rallies and protests are expected near Israeli-controlled checkpoints in the West Bank and along the border with Gaza.
Friday prayers at the Muslim shrine of Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem could also be a flashpoint.
Naser Al-Qidwa, an aide to Westernbacked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and senior official in his Fatah party, urged Palestinians to stage peaceful protests.
Abbas yesterday met Jordan’s King Abdullah, whose dynasty is the traditional custodian of Jerusalem’s holy places. Jordan is a staunch U.S. ally but has dismissed Trump’s move as “legally null”.
Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital. Palestinians want the capital of an independent state of their own to be in the city’s eastern sector, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move never recognised internationally. No other country has its embassy there.
U.S. officials told Reuters that when Trump forewarned the Palestinian president of his intention to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, he assured him that a peace plan being put together would please the Palestinians.
Trump’s decision has raised doubts about his administration’s ability to follow through on the peace effort that his son-inlaw and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, has led for months aimed at reviving longstalled negotiations.
Israeli Housing Minister Yoav Gallant said he would next week bring to the Cabinet for approval 14,000 housing units, some 6,000 of which are slated for construction in areas in Arab East
Jerusalem and are already at various planning stages.
“Following President Trump’s historic declaration, I intend to promote and reinforce building in Jerusalem,” Gallant said in a statement.
Trump said on Wednesday that his administration would begin a process of moving the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a step expected to take years and which his predecessors had opted not to take in order to avoid inflaming tensions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Trump’s announcement as a “historic landmark” and said many countries would follow the U.S. move and contacts were under way. He did not name the countries. The White House said it was not aware of any other country that planned to follow Trump’s lead.