Israel Kills a Palestinian, Injures 56 in 4th 'Day of Rage'

By teleSUR

30 December 17

Thousands of Palestinians protested the U.S. Jerusalem move in Gaza and the West Bank as Israel responded with live bullets, tank fire and airstrikes.

Palestinian man was killed and at least 56 were injured Friday as thousands of people took to the streets in Gaza and the occupied West Bank for the fourth Friday in a row in protests against U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, officials said Saturday.

Local media said more than 2,000 people in Gaza and other 2,000 people in the West Bank joined the fourth “day of rage” amid massive Israeli crackdown.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Gaza health ministry said Saturday that Jamal Mohammed Jamal Musleh, 20, from Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, succumbed to his wounds after he was shot in the chest with live ammunition by Israeli troops during clashes along the border.

Israeli forces also hit the Gaza Strip with tank fire and airstrikes, Palestinian sources and Israeli army said.

The Israeli army said its fighter jets carried out airstrikes in Gaza after three rockets were allegedly fired from the enclave, which has been under military blockade for more than a decade.

The rockets from Gaza are often fired by fringe Islamist groups but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks from the territory. Hamas has in fact tried to crackdown on Islamic State group-inspired extremist groups in the strip.

Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Qudra said 40 Palestinian protesters were wounded in Gaza, with four being in a serious condition. Demonstrators in the Palestinian strip chanted "Death to America, death to Israel, and death to Trump"

In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said at least 16 people were wounded when Israeli troops fired live bullets during demonstrations, while others were hit with rubber-coated rounds.

Trump's Dec. 6 announcement was followed by protests across the West Bank and on Gaza's border with Israel, with 12 Gazans killed in clashes with Israeli forces on the border or by Israeli strikes. Maany protests also took place in Arab and Muslim cities against the U.S.'s controversial decision.

Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital. Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city's eastern sector, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed in a move never recognized internationally.

A U.N. General Assembly resolution passed on Dec. 21 rejected Trump's Jerusalem declaration. A total of 128 countries voted for the U.N. resolution. Nine opposed it and 35 abstained. Twenty-one countries did not cast a vote.