Protesters on Wednesday burned Israeli and US flags trampled on posters of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, and chanted “normalization is a betrayal to Jerusalem al-Quds and Palestine”.
The demonstrators in Gaza City also voiced support for the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, for his rejection of Trump’s Middle East plan, Aljazeera reported.
The protest was organized by the Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, and other factions.
Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, denounced the deal, and said: “Normalization with the occupation harms us and doesn’t serve us. Instead, it serves and promotes the occupation in its projects that target Palestine and the region.”
The protests came as Israeli fighter jets bombed the enclave for the eighth consecutive night.
Hamas security sources said Israeli warplanes and drones struck several facilities that belong to the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the movement.
Last week, Israel banned fuel imports into Gaza as part of punitive measures over the launch of incendiary balloons from the Strip.
Israel also banned fishing off Gaza’s coast and closed the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) goods crossing – cutting off deliveries of fuel to the territory’s sole power plant which was forced to shut down on Tuesday.
Power had been in short supply even before the shutdown, with consumers having access to electricity for only eight hours a day at best.
Hamas says Israel did not honor previous understandings which stipulated that Israel ease the blockade it has imposed on Gaza since the group’s takeover and allow for large-scale projects to help rescue the collapsing economy.
Gaza, home to more than two million people, has been under a crippling Israeli and Egyptian-imposed blockade for 13 years that has severely restricted the movement of Palestinians.
