In Gaza, terror group says Trump not welcome
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian leader in the Strip calls US president 'a symbol of evil in the world'
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on Tuesday held a demonstration in Gaza City, pointing rifles at an effigy of US President Donald Trump and declaring he was unwelcome in the the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
Trump, on a 28-hour visit to Israel, traveled to Bethlehem for a meeting with President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.
Hani al-Thawabta, a leader of the Marxist terror group in the Gaza Strip, said, “Trump is a symbol of evil in the world,” according a report in the Gaza-based news site al-Resaleh.
“You are unwelcome in our country of Palestine and our people will not accept your solutions,” he added.
Thawabta also railed against Trump for labeling Hamas a terror group, which the president did earlier this week while in Saudi Arabia.
Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since it violently seized control in 2007, has also shown anger after Trump openly denounced the group as terrorists during a speech to Arab and Muslim leaders given in Riyadh.
At a rally organized by Hamas on Monday night in the northern Gaza Strip, Hamas official Mohammed Abu Askar said his group received the terrorism label because it “refuses to bow to the dictates of America.”
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem wrote Monday night on Twitter, “Accusing Hamas of being a terrorist is like accusing the entire national Palestinian struggle [of terrorism].”
Hamas is considered a terrorist group by most of the Western world, including Israel, the European Union, Canada, Australia and the United States.