Israel and UAE reached a historic peace deal on August 13. Palestinians called it a betrayal and a stab in the back. “The Palestinian leadership rejects and denounces the UAE, Israeli and US trilateral, surprising announcement,” said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh.
And now, residents of the conflicted Gaza strip are voicing support for Abbas and his rejection of President Trump's Middle East plan, which the Palestinians say unfairly favours Israel.
The protest, organised by the Hamas movement, saw Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, denouncing the deal. He said, “Normalisation 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”.
Protesters burned Israeli and US flags, trampled on posters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump while chanting “normalisation is a betrayal to Jerusalem and Palestine”. Residents of the separately occupied West Bank also rallied against the deal between UAE and Israel. “Today we tell the world that we are united against 'the deal of the century', annexation and normalisation,” Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh told the rally in the village of Turmus'ayya, east of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Last week, after incendiary balloons from the Strip, Israel banned fuel imports into Gaza and banned fishing off Gaza's coast and closed the Karam Abu Salem goods crossing, the pass that facilitates delivery of fuel to the territory's sole power plant. The power plant too was forced to shut down on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Netanyahu invited the UAE’s de facto leader— Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi— to visit Jerusalem while praising his role in achieving a "noble and courageous" deal to normalise relations between Israel and the UAE.
As per the deal, Israel has temporarily postponed its plans to annex illegal Jewish settlements and other territories in the West Bank, at the behest of US President Donald Trump.
