Palestinians rally amid growing opposition to Israeli annexation
TEL AVIV: Thousands of Palestinians protested yesterday in Gaza against Israel’s West Bank annexation plans, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held off an announcement on the controversial project and international opposition stiffened.
Netanyahu’s centre-right coalition government had set July 1 as the date from which it could begin implementing United States President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace proposal.
With no announcement scheduled on Israel’s self-imposed kickoff date, opponents of the plan, notably Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, were mobilising.
Several thousand brandished Palestinian flags and placards condemning Trump at a rally in Gaza City, while demonstrations were building in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Jericho.
“The resistance must be revived,” said Gaza protester Rafeeq Inaiah. “Israel is afraid of force.”
The Trump plan, unveiled in January, offered a path for Israel to annex territory and Jewish West Bank settlements, communities considered illegal under international law.
Netanyahu has voiced enthusiastic support for the plan, which has been roundly rejected by the Palestinians, but he has not revealed his intentions for enacting the US proposals.
Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, launched some 20 test rockets from the coastal Palestinian enclave into the Mediterranean Sea yesterday, a move aimed at dissuading Israel from moving forward, Hamas sources said.
Hamas, which fought three wars with Israel since 2008, said Israeli annexations in the West Bank, which borders Jordan, would be a “declaration of war”.
The Ramallah-based Palestinians Authority said it was willing to renew long-stalled talks with Israel, but not on terms outlined by Trump.