BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese security forces on Sunday fired tear gas and water cannons into crowds that had gathered near the United States Embassy, in a sign that protests against President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel may be escalating.

Thousands of protesters chanted slogans against Mr. Trump’s orders, which involves moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, with some throwing rocks and setting tires and a large trash container on fire outside the embassy’s highly secured gated compound in a suburb north of the capital, Beirut.

Some protesters tried to rip the barbed wire off a fence, but they were repelled by the security forces, who fired a barrage of tear gas and sent them running, with many choking from the smoke, vomiting or fainting.