Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank launched protests denouncing the normalisation deals signed in Washington on Tuesday between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Both the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Hamas movement, which governs the Gaza Strip, have condemned the US-brokered accords as a “stab in the back” to their people.
Starting early on Tuesday, protests in the occupied West Bank were held in Ramallah, Tulkarem, Nablus, Jericho, Jenin, Bethlehem and Hebron, among other smaller localities, as well as in Gaza City.
Protesters chanted and held posters denouncing normalisation and calling for Arab unity against Israel’s occupation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top diplomats from the UAE and Bahrain signed the agreements to normalise ties on Tuesday, without any progress on an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was in Beirut for a meeting with secretaries of Palestinian factions on Tuesday, told President Mahmoud Abbas in a phone call that all Palestinian factions were united against the deal, and “will not allow the Palestinian cause to be a bridge for recognition and normalisation with the occupying power at the expense of our national rights, our Jerusalem and the right of return”.
On Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh described the accords as another “black day” for the Arab world…
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