Palestinian president threatens to fully cut US ties
The Israeli military conducted fresh airstrikes on the Gaza Strip after Palestinians in the blockaded enclave and the occupied West Bank marked a “day of rage” in protest at US contentious declaration of support for the regime’s land grab policy.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets had hit a number of targets belonging to the Hamas resistance movement in southern Gaza late Tuesday night and early Wednesday, including one site “for the production of arms,” according to Press TV.
“The strikes were carried out in response to the rockets that were fired from the Strip toward” the occupied territories, it added.
An army spokesperson said two rockets were fired from Gaza on Tuesday.
He added that sirens went off in Ashkelon in the aftermath of the rocket fire, sending tens of thousands of residents into shelters.
Prior to the air raids, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Gaza-based resistance groups against firing rockets into Israel.
“If someone in Gaza thinks it’s safe to attack us after Operation Black Belt – they’re making a serious mistake. We will respond aggressively to any attack against us,” he said, referring to the intense fighting between the army and the Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad earlier this month.
On November 12 and 13, the two sides engaged in a fight after Israel assassinated senior Islamic Jihad commander, Baha Abu al-ata, along with his wife, in a targeted strike on their home in Gaza.
During the flare-up – which killed a total of 35 Palestinians – Tel Aviv conducted dozens of airstrikes on Gaza, while Palestinian resistance fighters fired over 450 rockets and mortar shells into the occupied territories.
The Israeli raids followed heavy clashes earlier on Tuesday between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters during the “day of rage” rallies that were prompted by Washington’s Uturn on the Tel Aviv regime’s settlement expansion policy.
Last week, the administration of US President Donald Trump effectively backtracked on Washington’s four-decade policy on the illegal status of Israeli settlements built in the West Bank.
Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated across the West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday to condemn US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement that the establishment of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank “is not per se inconsistent with international law.”
In Gaza City, hundreds of Palestinian protesters gathered outside the offices of the United Nations to express their anger.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least 77 protesters sustained injuries during the clashes with Israeli forces, ranging from tear gas inhalation to rubber-coated bullet wounds.
In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian protesters burned US and Israeli flags as well as cardboard cutouts of Netanyahu, Trump, and Pompeo.
The Palestinian Authority’s governor of Nablus, Ibrahim Ramadan, said during one of the rallies that “popular resistance is the real response to the unjust policies of the US administration against the Palestinian people and to Israeli crimes.”
In the central city of Ramallah, demonstrators held signs reading, “Trump to impeachment, Netanyahu to jail, the occupation will go and we will remain on our land.”
Several senior Palestinian officials, including Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and Deputy Chairman of the Fatah Mahmoud Aloul participated in the Ramallah protest.
Addressing the demonstrators, Shtayyeh stressed that Tuesday’s “day of rage” was aimed at expressing Palestinians’ “rejection of Israeli occupation” and the policies of the Trump administration.
In the city of Bethlehem, protesters marched on the streets, carrying a poster reading, “Palestine, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea. Palestine is ours – Jerusalem is our capital.”
Severing US relations
Speaking to Russian media on Tuesday, President Mahmoud Abbas warned that Palestine could fully sever relations with the US after the White House defied international law and backed Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land.
“We are ready to go to a complete breakdown of relations with [the US],” Abbas said, when Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank marked the “day of rage.”
Abbas said that the measure had been condemned by “almost every country in the world,” and that Palestinian authorities would not allow the move to go unanswered.
“The US administration has long been hostile to the Palestinian people,” Abbas said, highlighting Washington’s earlier hostile measures, including cutting funding for the UN’S aid program for Palestinian refugees and recognizing occupied Al-quds as Israel’s “capital.”
Following the embassy transfer, Abbas rejected the US as the sole mediator in Palestine’s decades-long conflict with Israel due to its bias toward Tel Aviv, saying the Palestinians will not accept the deal the Trump administration has been unilaterally drawing up on the issue.
The yet-to-be-unveiled deal, according to reports, undermines Palestinian territorial rights in exchange for specific economic incentives.
Palestinian Authority warning
Citing Abbas on Tuesday, Russia’s Sputnik news agency said that the Palestinian Authority intends to turn to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and completely sever ties with the Israeli regime if it proceeds with a plan to annex the Jordan Valley in the West Bank.
“As for Benjamin Netanyahu’s intention to pass a law on Israel’s annexation of the Jordan Valley, we are closely monitoring his steps in this direction,” he said.
Netanyahu has promised to annex the Jordan Valley if he is reelected, drawing sharp criticism from the Palestinians as well as countries in the Middle East.
“If the Israeli premier really does something like this, we will turn to the UN, the International Criminal Court, and we’ll finally and irrevocably sever all relations with Israel,” Abbas added.