GAZA/JERUSALEM, May 14, 2018 (Reuters) – Israeli troops killed dozens of Palestinians taking part in mass protests on the Gaza border yesterday as the United States opened its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem. The US relocation of its embassy from Tel Aviv fulfilled a pledge by US President Donald Trump, who has recognised the holy city as the Israeli capital, but it has fired Palestinian anger and drawn criticism from many foreign governments as a setback to peace efforts. At the embassy inauguration ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked President Trump for "having the courage to keep your promises". "What a glorious day for Israel," Netanyahu said in a speech. "We are in Jerusalem and we are here to stay." President Trump, in a recorded message, said he remained committed to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He was represented at the ceremony by his daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, US envoy to the Middle East. Kushner said it was possible for both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to gain more than give in any peace deal. "Jerusalem must remain a city that brings people of all faiths together," he said in a speech. As the ceremony took place in Jerusalem, Palestinian protests on the Gaza border quickly turned into bloodshed Israeli gunfire killed at least 43 Palestinians, the highest toll in a single day since a series of protests demanding the right to return to ancestral homes in Israel began on March 30. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the dead included six children under the age of 18. Ministry officials said about 2,200 Palestinians were wounded, half of them by live bullets. The Palestinian dead yesterday included a medic and a man in a wheelchair who had been pictured on social media using a slingshot. The Israeli military said three of those killed were armed insurgents who tried to place explosives near the fence. The latest casualties raised the Palestinian death toll to 88 since the protests started six weeks ago, the worst bout of bloodshed since the 2014 Gaza war. No Israeli casualties have been reported. Egypt has meanwhile strongly condemned the targeting of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces and reiterated its rejection of the use of force in facing peaceful marches that call for legitimate and just rights, a statement by the Foreign Ministry said yesterday. It further warned against the negative consequences of such dangerous escalation in the occupied Palestinian territories, voicing the country's full support to the legitimate rights of the Palestinians, including in the foremost the right to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Al-Azhar has also denounced Washington's embassy shift to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, saying it amounted to a provocation for the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. The timing of the move shows a preference "towards the logic of arrogance and power at the expense of the value of justice," Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Mosque, Egypt's highest religious authority and one of the world's most eminent seats of Sunni Muslim learning, said in a statement reported by the Middle East News Agency. The Russian government said it feared the embassy move would increase tensions across the Middle East. France and Britain called on Israel to show restraint and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply concerned" by the events in Gaza. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the US move flouted international law. "France calls on all actors to show responsibility to prevent a new escalation," Le Drian said in a statement. In London, the British government said it had no plans to move its Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and it disagreed with the US decision to do so. Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, in a statement on Monday, accused the United States of "blatant violations of international law". "Choosing a tragic day in Palestinian history (to open the Jerusalem embassy) shows great insensibility and disrespect for the core principles of the peace process," Hamdallah wrote.
