Day of rage
Facilities targeted after rocket attack
Palestinian protesters clashing with Israeli forces near an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank town of Bethlehem following the US president’s decision to recognise the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
GAZA CITY: Israeli air strikes killed two Hamas members following a rocket attack on Israel, in the latest fallout from President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which has roiled the region and the larger Muslim world.
The Israeli military said it targeted four Hamas facilities in response to rockets fired the previous day, including one that landed in the town of Sderot without causing casualties or major damage. The military said it struck military warehouses and weapons manufacturing sites, after which Hamas said it recovered the bodies of two of its men.
Israel considers Hamas responsible for all rocket fire emanating from Gaza, which is home to other armed groups. The flare-up followed clashes on Friday between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops in dozens of West Bank hotspots and along the Gaza border. Two Palestinians were shot dead in Gaza and dozens were wounded in the West Bank.
In Jerusalem, prayers at Islam’s third-holiest site dispersed largely without incident. Large crowds of worshippers across the Muslim world staged anti-US marches on Friday, some stomping on posters of Donald Trump or burning American flags.
Yesterday marked the third Palestinian “day of rage” following Trump’s announcement and more protests were expected. In Bethlehem, Palestinians hurled stones at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades.
Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem, and his intention to move the US Embassy there, triggered denunciations from around the world, with even close allies suggesting he had needlessly stirred more conflict in an already volatile region.
The status of the city lies at the core of the Israeli-Palestinians conflict, and Trump’s move was widely perceived as siding with Israel. Even small crises over Jerusalem’s status and that of the holy sites in its Old City have sparked deadly bloodshed in the past.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement and other groups have called for mass protests while its rival, the Gaza-based militant Hamas, is calling for a third violent uprising against Israel, though such appeals have largely fizzled as Palestinians have become disillusioned with their leaders.
Most countries around the world have not recognized Israel’s 1967 annexation of east Jerusalem and maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv. Under a longstanding international consensus, the fate of the city is to be determined in negotiations. The United States found itself alone in the United Nations Security Council on Friday, fielding criticism from its other 14 members over the proposed move.
While Trump’s announcement was warmly welcomed in Israel as an acknowledgement of its longtime seat of government and the ancient capital of the Jewish people, it was greeted with outrage from Palestinians and an abandonment of the longtime American role as mediator in the conflict.
After two decades of halting peace negotiations that have failed to bring Palestinians closer to statehood, some in Abbas’ inner circle have begun to speak openly about abandoning the two-state formula in favour of a single binational state.