07 March 2018•Update: 08 March 2018
By Nour Abu Aisha
GAZA CITY, Palestine
Palestinian political factions on Wednesday announced plans to stage mass demonstrations along the Gaza Strip's fraught border with Israel.
The planned demonstrations are meant to protest the decade-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the strip and the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
"We have drawn up a national committee tasked with breaking the siege imposed on Gaza and reversing U.S. President Donald Trump's decision on Jerusalem," Khaled al-Butsh, a leader of the Islamic Jihad group, said at a press conference in Gaza City.
Preparations for the rallies, he said, would include the erection of large camps along the border to accommodate demonstrators.
The planned protests, al-Butsh added, "will stress the invalidity of Trump's so-called 'Deal of the Century' [between the Palestinians and Israel] and U.S. attempts to nullify the Palestinians' right to return to their ancestral homeland".
The term "Deal of the Century" refers to a back-channel plan by the Trump administration aimed at reaching a final settlement of the Mideast conflict.
Last month, Anadolu Agency revealed details of the plan, which would reportedly allow Israel to annex all of Jerusalem -- along with major West Bank settlement blocs -- in return for a demilitarized Palestinian state.
According to al-Butsh, the recently-formed national committee includes representatives of several prominent Palestinian political factions -- including Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad -- along with those of human rights NGOs, social institutions, youth groups and Arab tribes.
Simultaneous marches are rallies will also be held in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in coordination with Palestinians in Syria, Lebanon and in the diaspora, al-Butsh said.
In an earlier interview with Anadolu Agency, Islamic Jihad spokesman Dawood Shihab did not rule out the possibility of some of these rallies breaching the border.
Israeli forces deployed near the border prohibit Palestinians from approaching the area, often shooting at -- or arresting -- anyone who does so.
Since last December, Palestinians have staged regular demonstrations near the Gaza-Israel border to protest Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital -- a move that drew widespread condemnation and protest from across the Arab and Muslim world.
