Palestinians held demonstrations across the region Friday to protest President Donald Trump's Middle East initiative, while in the Gaza Strip, rockets and mortar rounds were fired at Israel, drawing retaliatory strikes.
The Palestinians have rejected the Trump plan, which heavily favors Israel and would allow it to annex all of its Jewish settlements, along with the Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinians were offered limited self-rule in Gaza, parts of the West Bank and some sparsely populated areas of Israel in return for meeting a long list of conditions.
Israel launched airstrikes on targets in Gaza early Friday, shortly after Palestinians fired three rockets into Israel, two of which were intercepted, the military said.
It said Palestinian fighters had also launched “explosive balloons" toward Israel and that a sniper had shot an observational antenna. It said it struck targets linked to the Hamas movement in response, including “underground infrastructure used to manufacture weapons.”
Later on Friday, the military said Gaza fighters fired three mortar rounds. In response, an Israeli tank fired on a Hamas military post.
Hamas rejected the Trump plan and vowed that “all options are open” in responding to the proposal, but the group is not believed to be seeking another war with Israel.
Protests
Thousands of people took to the streets after Friday prayers in neighboring Jordan to protest the plan.
Jordan, a close US ally and key player in previous peace efforts, has warned Israel against annexing territory. Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab countries to have signed peace agreements with Israel.
The protesters waved Jordanian and Palestinian flags and burned Israeli flags despite the rainy weather. They chanted “Here we are, al-Aqsa,” referring to a Jerusalem mosque on a site sacred to Muslims and Jews.
In Lebanon, dozens of Palestinians gathered in the crowded Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camp after Friday prayers, carrying Palestinian flags and pictures of the al-Aqsa mosque. They chanted “We would die for Palestine to live” and “Revolution until we set Palestine free."
“Palestine is not for sale, even if it were for millions upon millions. If (Trump) gave all of his money we wouldn't sell to him,” said 58-year-old Fatima al-Khatib.
The plan anticipates $50 billion of investment in the future Palestinian state and describes several ambitious development projects, without saying where the money would come from.
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have held small, scattered protests in recent days condemning the Trump initiative, and thousands gathered in Gaza on Friday, where they burned US and Israeli flags and portraits of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At least 14 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire in scattered protests along the security fence surrounding Gaza, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent medical service.
There were concerns that larger demonstrations and clashes would break out at the compound housing the al-Aqsa mosque, but Friday prayers there concluded peacefully. The Islamic trust that manages the site said an estimated 30,000 worshippers attended the weekly prayers.
The site, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, is the third holiest in Islam, after Makkah and Madinah in Saudi Arabia.
Trump's Middle East plan would situate the Palestinian capital on the outskirts of east Jerusalem, beyond the separation barrier built by Israel. The rest of Jerusalem, including the Old City, would remain Israel's capital.
State of shock
“A lot of people are still in a state of shock over the proposal," said Christian Saunders, the acting head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to some 5 million Palestinians scattered across the region.
"What will happen after that shock wears off, I don’t know. We certainly have serious concerns that it will result in an escalation in clashes and in violence. We have contingency plans in place in order to support during such times of unrest.”
Saunders was in Geneva to launch an appeal to donors to fund UNRWA's 2020 budget to the tune of $1.4 billion towards essential services and assistance for 5.6 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.
UNRWA has faced a severe funding crunch ever since Trump in 2018 decided to suspend, then yank entirely the US contribution to the agency's budget, robbing it of its top donor.
Trump's administration, along with Israel, accuses UNRWA of perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The agency disputes that and says the services it provides would otherwise not be available to Palestinians.
After the US withdrew funding, a range of other countries stepped up support and UNRWA actually entered 2019 with a surplus of about $60 million, Saunders said.
"Unfortunately ... this initial support started to wane, and as a result we have been forced to carry over considerable liabilities into 2020," he said.
"We are stretched to our limits."
He lamented that UNRWA was facing a concerted campaign of misinformation by critics trying to convince parliamentarians in Europe especially not to fund the agency.
The agency was set up in the years after more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their lands during the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel.
It provides schooling and medical services to refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as well as the Palestinian territories, and employs around 30,000 people, mostly Palestinians.
