(AP) — Hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip rallied Wednesday against US President Donald Trump’s imminent announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and his plan to move the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv.
The demonstration on the streets of Gaza City was organized by several Palestinian factions and terror groups that called for Palestinian unity in response to Trump’s expected announcement, which would upend decades of US policy regarding the city.
The protesters burned American and Israeli flags.
They also waved Palestinian flags and banners proclaiming Jerusalem as “our eternal capital” and calling it a “red line.”
The announcement will mark a major milestone for Israel’s efforts to gain international legitimacy for its claims to Jerusalem. Israel calls Jerusalem its undivided capital, but the international community has refrained from recognizing it as such pending final status negotiations with the Palestinians, who seek the eastern half of the city as their own seat of power in a future state.
Hamas, which controls Gaza and which the United States and the European Union consider a terrorist organization, also called for more protests over the coming days.
Hamas official Salah Bardawil said the Palestinians were “on a dangerous crossroad today; we either remain or perish.” He added that “Trump or anyone thinking that our people, nation and resistance are unable to push back his plans is wrong.”
Hamas’ politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh told Al-Jazeera TV that “our Palestinian people will have a suitable response. As a people, we cannot accept this American pattern.”
However, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said Trump’s expected recognition of contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is bound to “destroy the peace process and the two-state solution.”
Hamdallah met with European diplomats on Wednesday and urged European countries to recognize a state of Palestine on the lands captured by Israel in 1967.
The UN General Assembly upgraded Palestine to a nonmember state in 2012, but influential countries in Western Europe have not individually recognized “Palestine.”
The Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as a capital. Israel’s government rejects partition of the city.
Hamdallah told the diplomats that the expected US shift on Jerusalem “will fuel conflict and increase violence in the entire region.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is to convene advisers after the announcement Wednesday to decide on a way forward.
Abbas’s Fatah party has not yet declared protests, but has told Palestinians to be ready for developments should Trump declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel.