Palestinians reject US allegations of incitement, link violence to Trump peace plan

Palestinians on Friday pushed back on the U.S.’s claims that they incited violence that left three Palestinians dead and over a dozen Israeli soldiers wounded.

Instead, Palestinians blamed the unrest on President Trump’s highly publicized Middle East peace plan, which they were not consulted on, The Associated Press reports.

“Those who introduce plans for annexation and apartheid and the legalization of occupation and settlements are the ones who bear full responsibility for deepening the cycle of violence and extremism,” senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said in a statement.

The day before, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who largely shaped the president’s peace plan, publicly blamed the violence on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

“Don’t call for days of rage and encourage [your] people to pursue violence if they’re not getting what they want,” Kushner said, adding that Abbas “was surprised with how good the plan was for the Palestinian people, but he locked himself into a position.” Kushner’s comments came after he briefed the United Nations Security Council on the plan.

However, the plan includes many concessions that Palestinian officials have long viewed as non-starters, such as allowing Israel to annex all of its settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

According to Erekat, Abbas will submit his own peace plan to the Security Council soon.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by extremist group Hamas, have been continuously firing mortar rounds at Israel since the release of Trump’s peace plan. Israel has responded with airstrikes, but there have been no reports of deaths on either side.