Bloody Monday: Israeli snipers kill scores of Palestinians and wound 2,400 and fire teargas at 35,000 protesters rallying against the US Embassy opening in Jerusalem overseen by Trump's Middle East envoy Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka
- US moving embassy from Tel Aviv today after Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December
- Israeli snipers have killed scores of protesters near the Gaza border with more than two thousand injured
- Mass protests taking place with Palestinian government accusing Israel of committing a 'terrible massacre'
- Comes after al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri called for group's followers to carry out jihad against the US
- Russia says embassy move risks increasing Middle East tension as Turkey says US is now 'part of the problem'
- The Arab League is planning to hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss America's 'illegal' embassy move
- US President's son-in-law and Middle East envoy Jared Kushner said opening showed US could be trusted and that when 'Trump makes a promise, he keeps it'
- WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended the use of force on the Gaza border after Israeli snipers killed scores of Palestinians and wounded thousands more.
Today 35,000 protesters rallied against the US Embassy opening in Jerusalem as tear gas and sniper fire rained down.
Every country has the obligation to defend its borders,' Netanyahu said on Twitter.
'The Hamas terror organisation declares its intention to destroy Israel and send thousands to break through the border fence in order to achieve this aim. We will continue to act firmly in order to defend our sovereignty and our citizens.'
It comes after a 14-year-old was among 52 shot dead along the Gaza border on what is already the deadliest single day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since a 2014 war between the Jewish state and Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas.
At least 2,400 more have been injured with hundreds of them by live bullets, according to Gaza officials as the Palestinian government accused Israel of committing a 'terrible massacre' and Amnesty International called the bloodshed an 'abhorrent violation' of human rights.
This afternoon a White House delegation - including Ivanka Trump and her husband - gathered for an inauguration ceremony for the opening of the new embassy alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The US President tossed aside decades of precedent when he recognised the city as Israel's capital in December - a decision that sparked global outcry, Palestinian anger and exuberant praise from Israelis.
Russia said today it feared the embassy opening would increase tension in the Middle East while Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan warned the US it had forfeited its role as a mediator in the region and was now 'part of the problem rather than the solution'.
As deadly clashes continued this afternoon, Trump said in a video address aired at the opening that the embassy has been a 'long time coming' and that the U.S. had 'failed to acknowledge the obvious' for many years. He added that 'today, we follow through on this recognition' and that the new embassy was opening 'many, many years ahead of schedule.'
Trump also said his 'greatest hope' is for peace and that he 'remains fully committed to facilitating a lasting peace agreement'. His son-in-law Jared Kushner said the opening showed the US could be trusted and that 'when President Trump makes a promise, he keeps it'.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the international community must bring those responsible to justice, in a post on Twitter.
'Shocking killing of dozens, injury of hundreds by Israeli live fire in #Gaza must stop now,' Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein wrote in a message carried on the UN human rights Twitter account.
'The right to life must be respected. Those responsible for outrageous human rights violations must be held to account. The int'l community needs to ensure justice for victims.'
The Israeli military’s spokesman on Monday evening said the level of violence in Palestinians protests earlier in the day along the Gaza border was “unprecedented,” as dozens of Gazans were reportedly killed and hundreds more injured in the riots.
However, despite the fierceness of the clashes, the spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, said the Hamas terror group, which rules the Gaza Strip, appeared to have failed to bring out protesters in sufficient numbers to be considered a political victory.
Manelis said Hamas deployed 12 separate terror “cells” to try to breach the border at different spots, and that they were ordered to confront and try to kidnap Israeli soldiers. All those efforts failed, he said on Hadashot TV.
The TV report said that at least 10 of those killed had been identified by the IDF as Hamas members.
Hamas, and the IDF, anticipated that over 100,000 people would participate in Monday’s demonstrations along the border fence. But ultimately, the army calculated that 40,000 people took part, though Manelis acknowledged the final tally may be higher.
Manelis said Hamas attempted to convince and pressure Palestinians to come to the border protests, tried to bribe them by offering “$100 per family that comes,” and threatened people by accusing them of being “collaborators” if they did not attend the protests.
Despite those efforts, Manelis said, “Hamas failed.”
Military officials said they were prepared for the protests to last into the night. Soldiers on the border, for instance, were outfitted with night-vision equipment, and the military was ready to use flares to illuminate the area.
However, as of 6:30 p.m. it appeared that the protesters were clearing the border area for the night and, according to unconfirmed reports, the organizers were calling the demonstrators away from the border.
Manelis said the IDF was expecting protests to continue on Tuesday and potentially for several additional days.
“This is unprecedented in terms of the level of violence, compared to previous weeks,” he said.
In response to the three attacks, the Israeli army destroyed a number of Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip. Fighter jets also destroyed five Hamas targets in the northern Gaza Strip, and Israeli tanks and aircraft struck two more, the army said.
According to the IDF, protesters also hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli troops on the other side of the border fence. Demonstrators launched dozens of so-called “terror kites” — kites laden with containers of burning fuel — into Israeli territory, sparking brush fires in open fields and farm lands across the region.
Manelis said that there were also multiple attempts to rush the border — none of them successful — and that the army has intelligence indicating Hamas and other terrorist groups have plans to try to kidnap or kill Israeli soldiers serving on the fence.
“That is intolerable to a sovereign nation,” Manelis said. “We are protecting our home.”
No comments:
Post a Comment