Search

Israel ‘ready for any scenario’ as Palestinians threaten violence over Trump deal

Bennett met with top IDF personnel, including Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi and the commanders in charge of the Central Region and Judea and Samaria.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett has instructed all security services to be prepared for Palestinian violence in reaction to the peace plan President Trump presented Tuesday in Washington that was publicly accepted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He met with top IDF personnel, including Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi and the commanders in charge of the Central Region and Judea and Samaria.

“I hear threats from the Palestinian side,” he said, reassuring the public that “the security establishment and IDF are ready for any scenario.”

Israel Radio reported that in Ramallah, Palestinians were burning posters of Trump and Netanyahu on Tuesday.

About two hours after the televised unveiling, several thousand Palestinians gathered in the city’s main square to hear speakers from Fatah call for torpedoing the deal via a renewed “national struggle.”

Pictures of Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, who had endorsed the plan on Monday, and of Jason Greenblatt, one of the chief American architects of the plan, were also burned at this protest.

Effigies of Trump and Netanyahu, as well as Israeli and American flags, were set alight in similar demonstrations that took place in Jenin, Hebron, and other cities in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip.

Read  Egypt proposes 2-day ceasefire plan to return 4 Israeli hostages

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ immediate rejection of the plan was absolute.

“We say 1,000 no’s to this deal,” he said, despite its promise of a Palestinian state. “I call on the entire Palestinian nation in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem to oppose the ‘deal of shame’ that will not be carried out.”

Even before Trump’s speech, Abbas had phoned his arch-rival, Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh, and they agreed to work together against the plan.

After its unveiling, the deputy chief of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Hayya, threatened that “all options are open” for defeating what he called the “conspiracies” against the Palestinians. “The occupation and the U.S. administration will bear the responsibility for what they did,” he said.

There were protests in solidarity with Palestinians in Jordan as well. Demonstrators stood in front of the American Embassy in Amman and waved signs that said, “Palestine is not for sale,” “America is the chief terrorist,” and “We’ll stop your deals and trample them under our feet.”