Palestinian rioters clash with IDF troops across West Bank, in Jerusalem

An estimated 3,000 Palestinian protesters held demonstrations and clashed with Israeli security forces in the West Bank cities of Hebron, Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Ramallah and elsewhere after Friday midday prayers in a show of anger over US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Hundreds of rioters burned tires and threw stones at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Palestinian officials reported 217 people injured, most lightly from tear gas inhalation. Seven were hit by live fire, 45 by rubber bullets and 162 from tear gas inhalation, they said. Israel’s Army Radio said one Palestinian was critically injured in protests at the Gaza border. Another 15 were said hurt in Gaza from rubber bullets and tear gas.

Among an estimated 30 demonstrations in the West Bank, one of the largest was in Ramallah, where Palestinians threw petrol bombs and rocks at Israeli security forces and burned tires. Israeli officials said six people were arrested, and 10 Palestinians were injured, and that troops fired shots into the air and used other crowd-dispersal means.

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In Jerusalem, hundreds of Palestinian rallied after Friday prayers near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a flashpoint site in the holy city which, along with the Dome of the Rock, sits on the Temple Mount. The holiest place in Judaism, the mount is known to Muslims as Haram al Sharif. PLO and Turkish flags were raised during Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa.

Most of the thousands of worshipers dispersed peacefully after Friday prayers in the Old City. But hundreds of demonstrators burned Israeli flags while others chanted, “The war is approaching, Al-Quds Arabiya,” using the Arabic name for Jerusalem and declaring it an “Arab” city. Protesters also chanted, “Let us die as martyrs — there is no place for the State of Israel.”

A protest erupted briefly at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, but it was cleared by police. Demonstrators threw objects at the security forces deployed there. Israel Radio said Arab members of Knesset were seen in the crowds.

The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service said that one injured Palestinian man was transferred from Damascus Gate to the hospital after being injured by police.

Israel had bolstered its security deployment in Jerusalem, but despite the heightened alert, police did not impose any restrictions on Muslim worshipers praying at Al-Aqsa. (At times of expected violence, Israeli authorities sometimes limit access to the site for young men.)

In Gaza, thousands took to the streets and marched Friday to denounce Trump’s proclamation. Other protesters burned tires close to the Gaza border fence.

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The Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Trump had issued “a declaration of war against the Palestinian people,” Army Radio reported. The US president had harmed the Arab and Muslim nation, the Fatah spokesman said. “Someone with no right to intervene had awarded [Jerusalem] to someone with no right to it,” the radio reported quoted the spokesman saying.

On Thursday, Hamas terror group leader Ismail Haniyeh called for a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

In a Wednesday address from the White House, Trump defied worldwide warnings and insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace a new approach was long overdue, describing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality. The move was hailed by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum. Trump stressed that he was not specifying the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city, and called for no change in the status quo at the city’s holy sites.

Security assessments expected tens of thousands to take part in the Friday protests and the IDF was particularly concerned that “lone wolf” attackers could try to carry out terror attacks, Israeli sources said.

Soldiers were stationed at potential confrontation points during the day and were later to deploy to prevent any attempts to carry out attacks on settlements over the Sabbath, the report said.