At least four Palestinians killed in latest Jerusalem fallout clashes

Turkey says it will counter the US decision on Jerusalem at the United Nations and start initiatives to increase the number of states who recognise the state of Palestine.

Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian during a protest against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, near the West Bank city of Nablus December 15, 2017.
Reuters

Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian during a protest against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, near the West Bank city of Nablus December 15, 2017.

At least four Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces in clashes on Friday, as tens of thousands of people joined new protests against Washington's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

US President Donald Trump's December 6 announcement that he would break with decades of American policy and move his embassy to Jerusalem has stirred international condemnation, as well as protests across the Palestinian territories and Arab world.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, two Palestinians were shot dead in Gaza, one in Ramallah and one near Jerusalem. Over 500 others were also injured, it said.

TRT World's Muhannad Alami reports from Ramallah.

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Protesters have burned American and Israeli flags and trampled on pictures of Trump. But concerns that the decision would lead to a major wave of bloodshed have as yet not materialised.

Protests broke out across the Palestinian territories for the second Friday in a row after the end of weekly Muslim prayers, often a catalyst for clashes between young Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.

In Gaza, the strip's rulers Hamas had called for another 'day of rage' against the decision, with tens of thousands taking to the streets.

In the occupied West Bank, a few thousand people gathered in the southern city of Hebron, as well as Nablus in the north, with clashes near the Al Arroub camp, south of Bethlehem.

In Jerusalem itself, around 30,000 people prayed at the Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims, the Islamic organisation that administers the site said.

The vast majority left without incident, but small scuffles broke out in Jerusalem's Old City.

TRT World's Liz Maddock has more. 

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Turkey to counter US move

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Friday that his country will counter Trump's decision at the United Nations. 

"We are starting initiatives at the UN to annul America's decision on Jerusalem," Erdogan said on Friday. 

The initiative is expected to be brought before the UN Security Council, which the US is a permanent member of. 

"If it is vetoed there, it will be brought to the UN General Assembly," Erdogan said.

TRT World's Andrew Hopkins has more from Turkey's capital Ankara.

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Rise in support for uprising

The status of Jerusalem is one of the most controversial issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel seized control of the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Middle East war and sees the whole of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, while the Palestinians view the east as the capital of their future state.

For decades global powers have avoided taking an opinion, keeping their embassies in Tel Aviv instead.

Trump declared, however, that he would move the embassy and recognised the city as Israel's capital.

Amid condemnation from much of the international community, the Palestinians have announced they will no longer view the Americans as mediator in negotiations with the Israelis.

A poll conducted after Trump's announcement by the respected Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found 45 percent of Palestinians supported a violent popular uprising, up from 35 percent three months prior.

Khalil Shikaki, the center's director, said the "only possible explanation" for the increase was Trump's decision.

He said, however, the effectiveness of the Israeli forces and the Palestinian security forces' ongoing security cooperation with them had ensured the protests in the West Bank remained relatively minor in scale.

While angered by Trump's declaration, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has not instructed his party Fatah or security forces to cut ties with Israel.

"Hamas is too weak in the West Bank to carry out any serious attacks (and) Fatah does not want to engage in violence," Shikaki said.

"This is not likely to change any time soon."

In Gaza, hermetically sealed off by Israel and Egypt, at least 12 rockets or mortars have been fired from the territory since Trump's announcement, with Israel hitting at least 10 sites in reply.

But the response has been relatively muted compared to some of the warnings, said Ofer Zalzberg, Israel-based analyst with the International Crisis Group think-tank.

He said the lack of serious blowback to Trump's announcement had encouraged right wingers in Israel's government to question whether "maybe other things that people said were impossible are not."

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