Protesters across the West Bank and Gaza Strip took to the streets Thursday in opposition to President Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Clashes between demonstrators and Israeli forces left at least 31 injured, according to medics, who say some were hit with live fire and others with rubber bullets. The Israel Defense Forces used “riot-dispersal gear,” a spokesperson said. That included water cannons and tear gas.
While some protesters focused their anger on the IDF, many turned their attention to Trump himself.
Protesters burned photos of Trump and American flags. In the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinians torched an effigy of Trump, and near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem they chanted a message to him, in English.
“It is not up to Trump to decide the future of east Jerusalem,” activist Daud Abu-Libdeh told the Jerusalem Post. “It is up to us — the residents — to decide upon our future.”
As people took to the streets, the leader of Hamas called for an uprising by Palestinians. “Tomorrow should be a day of rage and the beginning of a broad movement for an uprising that I call the intifada of freedom of Jerusalem,” Ismail Haniyeh said.
The White House meanwhile is hopeful that the anger felt by so many Palestinians will pass. “We know there will be short-term pain,” an anonymous the official told the Jerusalem Post, “but in the long term, this action will help with those conversations.”
