GAZA CITY
: Israeli soldiers shot and killed at least 52 Palestinians during mass protests along the Gaza border on Monday. It was the deadliest day there since a devastating 2014 cross-border war and cast apall over Israel's festive inauguration of the new US embassy in contested
Jerusalem.
In a show of anger fuelled by the embassy move, protesters set tyres on fire, sending plumes of black smoke into the air, and hurled firebombs and stones toward Israeli troops across the border. The Israeli military said its troops had come under fire, and accused protesters of trying to break through the border fence. It said troops shot and killed three Palestinians who were trying to plant a bomb.
The steadily climbing death toll and wall-to-wall condemnation of the embassy move by the Arab world raised new doubts about US President Trump's ambitions to broker what he once said would be the West Asia's "deal of the century." By late afternoon, at least 52 Palestinians, including five minors, were killed, the Gaza health ministry said. One of the minors was identified as a girl. At least 1,204 protesters were wounded, including 116 in serious or critical condition. The statement says about 1,200 others suffered other types of injuries, including from tear gas.
At the embassy ceremony in Jerusalem, Trump son-inlaw and chief West Asia adviser Jared Kushner placed the blame on the Gaza protesters. "As we have seen from the protests of the last month and even today those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution," he said. Kushner and Trump daughter Ivanka led a high-powered American delegation that also included the treasury secretary and four Republican senators.
The new embassy will temporarily operate from an existing
United States
consulate, until a decision has been made on a permanent location.
In Gaza, the Hamas-led protest was meant to be the biggest yet in a weeks-long campaign against a decade-old blockade of the territory. The Israeli military estimated a turnout of about 40,000, saying this fell short of what Hamas had hoped for. The march was also directed at the inauguration of the embassy.
Moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem - a key Trump campaign promise - infuriated the Palestinians, who seek east Jerusalem as a future capital. Monday marked the biggest showdown in years between Israel's military and Gaza's Hamas rulers along the volatile border. The sides have largely observed a ceasefire since the 2014 war - their third in a decade. The protests mark the culmination of a campaign, led by Hamas and fuelled by despair among Gaza's 2 million people, to break the blockade of the territory imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007. Since weekly border marches began in March, 83 Palestinian protesters have been killed and more than 2,500 wounded by Israeli army fire.
Hamas said four members, including three security men, were among the dead on Monday. "We say clearly today to all the world that the peaceful march of our people lured the enemy into shedding more blood," senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas condemned Israeli "massacres" along the Gaza border. Abbas, who declared three days of mourning, also said "the US is no longer a mediator in the Middle East (West Asia)," and the new embassy was tantamount to "a new American settler outpost" in Jerusalem. However, Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's actions on the Gaza border were self-defence against the enclave's ruling Hamas group. "Every country has an obligation to defend its borders," he tweeted.