Palestinian youths have gathered in protest near the Gaza Strip’s border with the occupied territories, setting fire to pictures of US and Israeli leaders as well as the Arab rulers, whom they blamed for betraying the Palestinian cause.
The rally came on Sunday as part of the weekly “March of Return,” which the residents of the Israeli-blockaded coastal sliver have been holding since last March in favor of their right to return to their Tel Aviv-occupied homeland, reports said.
The participants burned pictures of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
They did the same to portraits of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his Emirati counterpart, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. This was reportedly the first time the trio’s pictures would go up in flames during the now-15-month-old protests.
The protesters called the trio supporters of a shady US-devised plan for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict — which Trump has called “the deal of the century” — and condemned them for promoting normalization with Tel Aviv.
The US is yet to detail the scheme, but numerous leaks have alleged that it envisages grave contravention of Palestinian rights and demands in favor of the Israeli regime.
The rally also blasted an upcoming US-led conference, which is set to be held in the Bahraini capital Manama on June 25 and 26 to unveil and promote the economic aspects of the deal.