A Palestinian protester runs amid tear gas during clashes with Israeli troops following protests against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) Credit:NASSER NASSER A military spokeswoman said soldiers had used "riot-dispersal gear" against hundreds of rock-throwers. In the Gaza Strip, dozens of protesters gathered near the border fence with Israel and threw rocks at soldiers on the other side. Two protesters were wounded by live fire, one was in a critical condition. The Israeli military said on Thursday that two rockets launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip fell short inside the Palestinian enclave. Sirens sounded in Israel at various locations around the northern Gaza Strip on a day of heightened tensions following demonstrations. Saeb Erekat, the secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and a steadfast advocate for a Palestinian state, said Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had destroyed the hope of a two-state solution.

A Palestinian protester burns tires during clashes with Israeli troops. Credit:NASSER NASSER But rather than urging a new uprising, or intifada, Erekat embraced a radical shift in the PLO's goals – to a single state, but with Palestinians enjoying the same civil rights as Israelis, including the vote. "They've left us with no option," he said. "This is the reality. We live here. Our struggle should focus on one thing: equal rights." Journalists evacuate an injured Palestinian protester toward an ambulance during clashes with Israeli troops following protests against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) Credit:NASSER NASSER The suggestion appears to signal the despair in the Palestinian community. However, Israel would be unlikely to accede to equal rights, because granting a vote to millions of Palestinians would eventually lead to the end of Israel as a Jewish state.

On the ground, Palestinian factions called for a "Day of Rage" on Friday, and on Thursday, a wave of protest in the West Bank and Gaza brought clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops. Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops following protests against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) Credit:NASSER NASSER "We should call for and we should work on launching an intifada (Palestinian uprising) in the face of the Zionist enemy," Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech in Gaza. Naser Al-Qidwa, an aide to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and senior official in his Fatah party, urged Palestinians to stage protests but said they should be peaceful. A defaced poster of the US President Donald Trump during a protest in Bethlehem, West Bank. Credit:AP

Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital. Palestinians want the capital of an independent state of their own to be in the city's eastern sector, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move never recognised internationally. Netanyahu hailed Trump's move as a "historic landmark".​ But the reversal of decades of US policy has imperilled Middle East peace efforts and upset the Arab world and Western allies alike. A Palestinian protester prepares to throw back a teargas canister that was fired by Israeli soldiers, during clashes on the Israeli border with Gaza. Credit:AP The decision marks the "worst and most dangerous" to come from any American administration, Lebanese Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc said on Thursday. Other close Western allies of Washington, including France and Britain, have been critical of Trump's move. Pope Francis has called for Jerusalem's status quo to be respected, while China and Russia have expressed concern.

Illustration: Matt Golding Trump's decision has raised doubts about his administration's ability to follow through on a peace effort that his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, has led for months aimed at reviving long-stalled negotiations. Haniyeh called on Abbas to withdraw from peacemaking with Israel and on Arabs to boycott the Trump administration. Abbas said on Wednesday the United States had abdicated its role as a mediator in peace efforts. However, in an apparent effort to limit fallout over his break with longtime US policy, officials said US President Donald Trump had assured Abbas that a peace plan being put together would please the Palestinians. Trump's phone call to Abbas on Tuesday, the day before he made his bombshell announcement on Jerusalem, appeared to shed new light on behind-the-scenes efforts by White House advisers to craft a peace blueprint expected to be rolled out in the first half of 2018.

Trump administration officials strenuously reject the argument that Trump has foreclosed a two-state solution. He recommitted himself to brokering what he has called the "ultimate deal" between the two sides, they said. He has studiously avoided taking a position on the eventual borders or sovereignty of Jerusalem. And he called for status quo in the administration of the Jewish and Muslim holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem. "We want an agreement that is a great deal for the Israelis and a great deal for the Palestinians," Trump said. However, with Palestinians declaring it will be difficult for the United States to act as an honest broker after essentially siding with Israel on one of the central disputes in the conflict, administration officials said they expected a "cooling-off period". Details of the negotiating framework have yet to be finalised and there is little indication of tangible progress.

Trump's negotiating team, led by his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, will press on with development of a plan to serve as the foundation for renewed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, hoping the furore will blow over. Israel and the United States consider Hamas, which has fought three wars with Israel since 2007, a terrorist organisation. Hamas does not recognise Israel's right to exist and its suicide bombings helped spearhead the last intifada, from 2000 to 2005. Reuters, New York Times