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Trump Jerusalem move: Three Palestinians killed in new wave of protests

By AFP
December 16, 2017

GAZA CITY: Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire on Friday in clashes northeast of Jerusalem, health ministry in Ramallah said,

The Palestinian ministry said Bassel Ibrahim, 24, was shot dead by Israeli forces in Anata, a town between the West Bank and Jerusalem, in protests against Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Earlier, two Palestinians died in clashes along the Gaza border, with seven killed in total since Trump’s shock announcement last week. Demonstrators have burned American and Israeli flags and trampled on pictures of Trump amid concerns his announcement would lead to major bloodshed.

On Friday, two men were killed in clashes east of Gaza City, the Palestinian health ministry said. Yasser Sokar and Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh, 32 and 29, became the fifth and sixth Palestinians to be killed in Gaza since Trump’s announcement. Four were killed in clashes, while two Hamas militants died in an Israeli air strike. Protests and clashes broke out across the Palestinian territories for the second Friday in a row after the end of weekly Muslim prayers, often a catalyst for clashes between young Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.

In the occupied West Bank, thousands of people gathered for protests in the southern city of Hebron, as well as Nablus in the north. Near a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Ramallah a man stabbed a border police officer before being shot, police said.In Gaza, the strip’s Islamist rulers Hamas had called for another “day of rage” against Trump’s decision, with tens of thousands taking to the streets.

A few thousand people clashed with Israeli forces along different parts of the border, during which at least 82 people were injured, with five in serious condition, the health ministry in Gaza said. The army said around 2,500 people were involved in “riots” across the West Bank and about 3,500 in Gaza. At least 56 people were hospitalised across the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. In Jerusalem itself, there were minor scuffles in the Old City after Friday prayers. Over the border in neighbouring Jordan, thousands of people also demonstrated in the latest round of protests called by the Muslim Brotherhood, burning Israeli and American flags.