As it happened: At least 58 Palestinians killed and thousands injured by Israeli forces amid protests at US embassy in Jerusalem
As Israeli and American officials celebrated the change, thousands of Palestinian protesters were wounded or killed by Israeli bullets
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At least 58 Palestinians were killed and more than 2,000 people wounded in protests at the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel, according to Palestinian officials, on the same day the US fulfiled its controversial promise to move its embassy to the contested city of Jerusalem.
Thousands of demonstrators set fire to tyres on Monday, sending thick plumes of smoke into the air to deter Israeli snipers. The Israeli military said the protests were being used as cover for attacks on soldiers.
It marked the deadliest single day of protests in a weeks-long campaign from Hamas in the run up to the US embassy move and the Nakba, or ‘Catastrophe’, on Tuesday - celebrated in Israel as the country’s 70th birthday.
Gazans protest as US embassy moves to Jerusalem – in pictures
Show all 37The order given to Israeli soldiers was to prevent Palestinians from crossing into Israel at any price, including direct live fire. Israel has also warned Hamas that any mass breakthrough will result in airstrikes on the group’s infrastructure inside the Strip - with a number of targets hit by Israeli forces by the afternoon.
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Hamas, the militant group that rules the Strip, had urged supporters to break through the 11-year-old Israel blockade, which has left Gaza "uninhabitable".
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the actions of the Israeli forces as a "genocide" and Israel as a "terrorist state".
"No matter from what side, whether from the United States or Israel, I curse this humanitarian plight, this genocide," he said.
Kuwait has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council amid international outcry over the clashes.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's top aides and supporters on Monday celebrated the opening of the new US Embassy in Jerusalem as a campaign promised fulfilled.
Mr Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, along with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, led the US delegation with a single message: Only Trump had the courage to act on what America has wanted for a long time.
“While presidents before him have backed down from their pledge to move the American Embassy once they were in office, this president delivered. Because when President Trump makes a promise, he keeps it,” Mr Kushner said in his speech.
In a recorded message played at the ceremony, Mr Trump said the embassy move was a "long time coming" but he remained committed to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Our greatest hope is for peace,” said Trump, whose recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocation of the embassy to the holy city from Tel Aviv, has outraged Palestinians and drawn international concern.
“The United States remains fully committed to facilitating a lasting peace agreement,” Mr Trump said. “The United States will always be a great friend of Israel and a partner in the cause of freedom and peace.”
The relocation of the embassy from Tel Aviv has infuriated the Palestinians, who seek east Jerusalem as a future capital.
At least 22 Palestinians have already been injured by Israeli fire and shrapnel on the Israel-Gaza border, the Palestinian Red Crescent has said.
One casualty is believed to be a Palestinian News Network journalist who has been shot in the leg.
Thousands of people had gathered at crossing points by 10am local time (8am BST), much earlier than in protests in the last few weeks.
Both Iran and allied Lebanese Hezbollah have reiterated condemnation of the US' decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem.
The speaker of Iran's parliament Ali Larijani was quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency as saying the embassy move and Iranian nuclear issue will "not go unchallenged... These sorts of actions will increase tension in the region and the world."
Sheik Naim Qassem of Hezbollah appeared on Lebanon's al Manar TV describing the move as a "worthless" unilateral step in the peace process.
Gaza health officials say at least one Palestinian has been shot dead in clashes on the border with Israel.
The death brings the total number of casualties to 46 in the last six weeks of protests.
Smoke from burning tyres rises into the sky above the Gaza-Israel security fence as Hamas continues to bus demonstrators to the border area (Reuters)
A total of two people have been killed by Israeli fire and 69 people have been injured, nine of them seriously, the Gaza Strip's health ministry has said. Most are being treated for tear gas inhalation.
Israel's justice minister Ayelet Shaked has called Donald Trump the "Churchill of the 21st Century" for relocating the US embassy to Jerusalem.
Ms Shaked, from the pro-settler Jewish Home party, said Europe has not learned from history.
The continent "closed its eyes to the strengthening of the Nazis. Today it is choosing to close its eyes to the strengthening of Iran," she said.
The Arab League will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the US' "illegal" embassy move, Egyptian media reports, citing an Arab diplomat.
The summit on Wednesday will discuss strategies "to counter the illegal decision taken by the United States of America to transfer its embassy to Jerusalem".
On the eve of Israel's 70th birthday, Gaza's refugees and their descendents will "never forget" their violent expulsion, Sarah Helm wrote for The Independent from Gaza this weekend:
Everyone in the Great Return March knows full well they will not be returning to their ’48 lands, as they call them – at least not any day soon. They know full well that they risk being killed by Israeli snipers by even approaching the barrier wall – 40 have been shot dead in the past four weeks. But for most protesters it will be an achievement just to show the world they have not forgotten what happened in 1948, even if the world has forgotten them.
The death toll in Monday's clashes on the Gaza border has risen to seven killed by Israeli fire, the Gaza health ministry says.
The total of people killed in the last six weeks of protests now stands at 49.
Al Qaeda has released a video addressing the embassy move to Jerusalem, calling on Muslims to renew jihad against the US.
Leader Ayman al Zawahri called the West Bank's Palestinian Authority (PA) the "sellers of Palestine" in a five minute address released late on Sunday night called 'Tel Aviv is also a land of Muslims'.
The PA's attempts at "appeasement" had failed, he said.
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