Two Palestinians killed in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Two Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday with authorities in the Hamas-run territory blaming an Israeli strike, but Israel’s military immediately denying the claim.

The circumstances of the incident, which occurred near Gaza’s northern border with Israel, were initially unclear. Palestinian health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP the two men were killed "in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza after an Israeli strike targeted a motorcycle".

The Israeli army immediately denied this, saying in a statement "contrary to Palestinian reports earlier today, the army did not attack in the northern Gaza Strip". Qudra named the two men as Hussein Ghazi Nasrallah and Mustafa al-Sultan, both in their 20s.

Family members at the hospital where the bodies were taken told AFP the two men were members of Islamic Jihad, an Islamist group that fought alongside Hamas in the last war with Israel in 2014.

The deaths came amid tensions between Palestinians and Israeli forces following US President Donald Trump’s announcement he would move the US embassy in Israel to Occupied al-Quds and recognise the city as Israel’s capital.

Four Gazans, including two Hamas activists, have died since the announcement last Wednesday. Two were killed in clashes, while two others died in Israeli air strikes in response to rocket fire from Gaza.

Meanwhile, Turkey criticised what it said was a feeble Arab reaction to the US decision to recognise al-Quds as Israel’s capital, saying on the eve of Wednesday’s Muslim summit in Istanbul that some Arab countries were scared of angering Washington.

President Tayyip Erdogan, who has accused the United States of ignoring Palestinian claims to Israeli-occupied east al-Quds and "trampling on international law", has invited leaders from more than 50 Muslim countries to agree a response.

Al-Quds, revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, is home to Islam’s third holiest site and has been at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades. US President Donald Trump’s announcement last week recognising the city as Israel’s capital angered many Muslim countries, but few governments have matched Turkey’s warning that it would plunge the world "into a fire with no end".

Several countries had still not said who they would send to Istanbul, a Turkish minister said. "Some Arab countries have shown very weak responses (on al-Quds)," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. "It seems some countries are very timid of the United States."

He said Egypt and the United Arab Emirates would send foreign ministers while Saudi Arabia had yet to say how it would participate. All three countries have delicate ties with Turkey, seeing links between the policies of Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party and regional Islamist movements they oppose. Other countries had also not said who they would send, Cavusoglu said, adding that the meeting of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation countries must stand up to what he called Washington’s "I am a super power, I can do anything" mentality.

"We will make a call for countries that have so far not recognised Palestine to do so now," he said. "We want the United States to turn back from its mistake." Trump’s announcement triggered days of protests across the Muslim world and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the West Bank, Gaza and East al-Quds.

Israel captured Arab East al-Quds in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it, an action not recognized internationally. On Monday, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Beirut to protest at a march backed by Hizbullah, the heavily armed Iran-backed group whose leader called last week for a new Palestinian uprising against Israel.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is expected to attend the Istanbul summit, said his country supported a new uprising against Israel to "safeguard the Palestinian people’s rights". Rouhani said Muslim countries would "undoubtedly voice their protest to the world" at Wednesday’s meeting. Iran supports several anti-Israel militant groups.