GAZA CITY, May 15: In a jarring contrast, Israeli forces shot and killed 57 Palestinians and injured more than 2,700 during mass protests Monday along the Gaza border, while just a few miles away Israel and the US held a festive inauguration ceremony for the new American Embassy in contested Jerusalem.

In addition, a baby died from tear gas inhalation, the Gaza Health Ministry said, bringing the overall death toll to 58.

It was by far the deadliest day of cross-border violence since a devastating 2014 war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, and further dimmed the already bleak prospects for President Donald Trump’s hoped-for peace plan.

Throughout the day, Gaza protesters set tires ablaze, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the air, and hurled firebombs and stones toward Israeli troops across the border. The Israeli military, which has come under international criticism for using excessive force against unarmed protesters, said Hamas tried to carry out bombing and shooting attacks under the cover of the protests and released video of protesters ripping away parts of the barbed-wire border fence.

Monday’s protests culminated more than a month of weekly demonstrations aimed at breaking a crippling Israeli-Egyptian border blockade. But the US Embassy move, bitterly opposed by the Palestinians, added further fuel.

There was barely any mention of the Gaza violence at Monday’s lavish inauguration ceremony for the new embassy, an upgraded consular building located just 50 miles (80 kilometers) away. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials joined an American delegation of Trump administration officials and Republican and evangelical Christian supporters.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and chief Mideast adviser, headlined the US delegation with his wife and fellow White House adviser, Ivanka Trump, as well as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and four Republican senators. Republican super-donor Sheldon Adelson was also present, and evangelical pastors Robert Jeffress and John Hagee delivered blessings.

“A great day for Israel!” Trump tweeted earlier Monday.

In a videotaped address, Trump said the embassy move, a key campaign promise, recognizes the “plain reality” that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. Yet he added the United States “remains fully committed to facilitating a lasting peace agreement.”

But Monday’s steadily climbing death toll and wall-to-wall condemnation of the embassy move in the Arab world raised new doubts about Trump’s ambitions to broker what he called the “deal of the century.” More than a year after taking office, Trump’s Mideast team has yet to produce a long-promised peace plan.

Trump says recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital acknowledges the reality that Israel’s government is located there as well as the ancient Jewish connection to the city. He insists the decision has no impact on future negotiations on the city’s final borders.

But to both Israel and the Palestinians, the American gesture is widely seen as siding with Israel on the most sensitive issue in their longstanding conflict.

“What a glorious day. Remember this moment. This is history,” Netanyahu told the inauguration ceremony.

“You can only build peace on truth, and the truth is that Jerusalem has been and will always be the capital of the Jewish people, the capital of the Jewish state,” he added.

The Palestinians, who seek east Jerusalem as their capital, have cut off ties with the Trump administration and say the US is unfit to serve as a mediator. Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area in a move that is not internationally recognized.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, furious over the embassy ceremony, said he “will not accept” any peace deal proposed by the Trump administration.

The Palestinian president also urged the international community to condemn what he said were “massacres” carried out by Israeli troops in Gaza, and officials said the Palestinians would file a war crimes complaint against Israel in the International Criminal Court over settlement construction.

At least 58 Palestinians were killed, the Gaza Health Ministry said. It said the toll included 57 killed by gunfire and a baby who was overcome by tear gas inhalation.

Six of those killed by gunshots were minors, the ministry said. In addition, 1,360 Palestinians were wounded by gunfire, including 130 who were in serious or critical condition.

Egypt, an important Israeli ally, condemned the killings of Palestinian protesters, while the UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, decried the “shocking killing of dozens.”

Turkey said it was recalling its ambassador to the United States over the US Embassy move, saying it “disregarded the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” and would “not serve peace, security and stability in the region.” It also recalled its ambassador to Israel following what it called a “massacre” of Palestinians on the Gaza border.

South Africa, a fervent supporter of the Palestinians, also recalled its ambassador for consultations, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, called on Israel to respect the “principle of proportionality in the use of force” and show restraint, while also urging Hamas to ensure any protests remain peaceful. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a similar appeal.

At the US Embassy ceremony in Jerusalem, Kushner placed the blame on the Gaza protesters.

“As we have seen from the protests of the last month and even today those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution,” he said.

Israel says the blockade of Gaza, imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas overran the territory in 2007, is needed to prevent Hamas from building up its military capabilities. But it has decimated Gaza’s economy, sending unemployment skyrocketing to over 40 percent and leaving the territory with just a few hours of electricity a day.

The Israeli military estimated a turnout of about 40,000 at Monday’s protest, saying it fell short of what Hamas had hoped for. But officials described what they called “unprecedented violence” unseen in previous weeks.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said hundreds of protesters carried out “concerted, coordinated” attacks on the border fence.

Although the crowd did not manage to break through, he said they caused “significant damage.” The army released video showing demonstrators setting a cargo crossing on fire and appearing to climb on the fence as they lobbed flaming objects into the Israeli side.

Conricus also said Hamas militants disguised as protesters tried to infiltrate, and there were at least three instances of armed Hamas gunmen trying to carry out attacks. Israeli aircraft and tanks struck seven Hamas positions.

Monday marked the biggest showdown in years between Israel’s military and Gaza’s Hamas rulers along the volatile border. The sides have largely observed a cease-fire since the 2014 war — their third in a decade.

Since the protests began on March 30, 100 Palestinians have been killed, most of them protesters. Israel said it killed three militants trying to plant a bomb along the fence, and Palestinian security officials said several Hamas militants were also killed by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza.

Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas figure, said the mass border protests would continue “until the rights of the Palestinian people are achieved.”

Throughout the day, sirens wailed as the wounded were carried to ambulances. Groups of young activists repeatedly approached the fence, but were quickly scattered by gunfire and tear gas.

The timing of Monday’s events was deeply symbolic to Israel and the Palestinians.

The US said it chose the date to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s establishment.

But Tuesday also marks the anniversary of what Palestinians call their “nakba,” or catastrophe, a reference to the uprooting of hundreds of thousands who fled or were expelled during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. A day of mourning and mass funerals was planned Tuesday.

A majority of Gaza’s 2 million people are descendants of refugees, and the protests have been billed as the “Great March of Return” to long-lost homes in what is now Israel.

The new embassy will temporarily operate from an upgraded, existing US consulate building, until a decision is made on a permanent location. Even the current location is sensitive, located partially in an area designated “no-man’s land” in a 1949 armistice agreement. The UN considers that land to be occupied territory, though the US says in practice the area has been in continuous Israeli use since 1949. AP

Buses carrying the inmates departed the Ayalonprison in central Israel late on Tuesday; a nighttime release that was aimed at preventing the spectacle of prisoners flashing victory signs as has happened in the past. Relatives of the victims, many with their hands painted red to symbolize what they say is the blood on the hands of the inmates, held protests throughout the day, and some protesters tried briefly to block the buses from leaving.

The decision to release the men stirred anguish in Israel, where many Israelis view them as terrorists. Most of the prisoners were convicted of killings, including Israeli civilians, soldiers and suspected Palestinian collaborators, while others were involved in attempted murder or kidnapping.

Celebrations erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where thousands of Palestinian well-wishers awaited the buses’ arrival. Palestinians generally view the prisoners as heroes regardless of their acts, arguing they made personal sacrifices in the struggle for independence.

Fireworks lit the sky in Gaza, where rival Hamas and Fatah supporters, including several masked gunmen, celebrated to the beat of drums. Some danced while others flashed victory signs and waved flags of the Palestinian factions. Cars with loudspeakers blasted nationalistic songs.

“Today is a day of joy and happiness. I can’t wait until I hug my beloved son,” said Aicha Abu Setta, the 68-year-old mother of freed prisoner Alla Abu Setta.

“I am so excited that he will be free and he will spend his first night among us after more than 20 years,” she said, clutching a picture of her 43-year-old son, who was arrested in 1994, charged, along with his cousin, of killing a soldier.

In the West Bank, Palestinians hurled rocks at the Israeli military vehicles escorting the bus convoy as it crossed into the territory after 1am.

Tuesday’s release was part of an agreement brokered by US secretary of state John Kerry to get Israel and the Palestinians back to the table for peace talks that had been paralyzed since 2008. In all, 104 convicts are to be released in four batches, although their freedom is contingent on progress in peace talks.

Israelis and Palestinians are to launch talks in Jerusalem on Wednesday, following a preparatory round two weeks ago in Washington.

Among those released on Tuesday was a Palestinian convicted in the 1994 slaying of Isaac Rotenberg, a 69-year-old Holocaust survivor who was attacked with an axe as he was working at a construction site where he was a contractor. Others were convicted in the slayings of Ian Feinberg, an Israeli lawyer killed in a European aid office in Gaza in 1993, and Frederick Rosenfeld, an American slain while hiking in the West Bank in 1989.

Thousands of Palestinians have spent time in Israeli prisons since Israel’s capture of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in 1967. They were jailed on charges ranging from throwing rocks to killing civilians in bombings, shootings and other attacks.

On Monday, Israel’s prison service posted the names online of the first 26 inmates to be released to allow for possible court appeals. Israel’s supreme court rejected an appeal by families of those killed by the prisoners earlier Tuesday.

Most of the inmates already have served around 20 years, with the longest-held arrested in 1985. Fourteen of the prisoners were released to the Gaza Strip and 12 to the West Bank.

Earlier, on Tuesday, Israel angered Palestinians when it announced it was moving forward with building nearly 900 new settlement homes in east Jerusalem.

The incident was the latest in a string of episodes involving young Israeli soldiers on social media that have drawn reprimand from the military.

Israeli news site Walla said the women were new recruits stationed on a base in southern Israel. One picture showed the soldiers removing their fatigue uniforms to expose their underwear and back sides. In another, five women posed in what appeared to be a barracks room, dressed only in helmets and a small amount of combat equipment. The faces of the soldiers were blurred in the photos.

In a statement, the military said the young women had acted in a manner that showed “unbecoming behavior” for Israeli soldiers. “The commanding officers disciplined the soldiers as they saw fitting,” it said.

The statement did not identify the soldiers or give any details about the punishments. Military officials said the base conducted educational lectures to keep soldiers from repeating the offense.

Several times in recent years, the Israeli military has disciplined soldiers for what were considered improper postings in social media sites.

In a video posted to YouTube in 2010, a male Israeli soldier was filmed dancing suggestively around a blindfolded Palestinian woman. That incident followed the discovery of photos earlier that year showing a female soldier posing in front of Palestinian prisoners.

Shortly thereafter, the Israeli military banned soldiers from using social media sites while on base. The ban was an effort to prevent future embarrassing posts on social media. It remains unclear whether the ban is in effect.

Early this year, another soldier was reprimanded for writing anti-Palestinian tweets and posting pictures to multiple social media services showing himself naked with a gun.

Most Jewish Israeli men and women are required to serve in the military, starting at age 18.

The military said dozens of settlers and Palestinians scuffled early Wednesday near the city of Ramallah.

Vandals sprayed “price tag” on a Palestinian house. Some extremists use the term to protest Israeli policy they view as favoring Palestinians.

Nablus governor Jebril Bakri said settlers also smashed cars and windows in villages near the northern West Bank city. The violence came after a Palestinian stabbed a settler to death at a bus stop in the area the day before.

Tensions are high in the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by Palestinians as part of their future state.

JERUSALEM: In 65 years, Israel has surpassed the dreams of its founders, emerging as the Middle East’s strongest military force, a global high-tech powerhouse and a prosperous homeland for the Jewish people.

Yet it remains a divided society, and its most intractable problem — peace with its Arab neighbors — has yet to be resolved.

On the eve of the 65th anniversary of its creation, the Jewish renaissance in the Holy Land remains a work in progress.

Dominating the short term is Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel believes is aimed at developing an atomic weapon that could be used against the Jewish state, despite Iranian denials. Unrest along Israel’s borders is equally worrisome.

Over the longer term, reaching peace with the Palestinians remains elusive, with the sides unable to agree even on how to restart negotiations. Palestinians consider creation of Israel a catastrophe that caused a stubborn refugee problem.

The 46-year occupation of Palestinian territories also ignites domestic and international tensions. Without a partition, Arabs could one day outnumber Jews, threatening Israel’s democratic nature.

Israel began observing its annual Memorial Day on Sunday evening, honoring fallen soldiers and victims of militant attacks. At 8 p.m., air raid sirens sounded nationwide to mark a minute of silence. A two-minute siren was set for Monday morning.

At sundown Monday, the country abruptly shifts its mood to mark its 65th Independence Day with fireworks, military processions and picnics. The transformation from grief to joy is an annual ritual meant to show the link between the sacrifices and the accomplishments.

“Today there are also those who rise up against us and threaten to destroy us. They did not succeed in the past, and they will never succeed,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Memorial Day ceremony Sunday. Netanyahu’s older brother, Yonatan, was killed in a military operation in 1976.

Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948. Israel marks the day according to the lunar Hebrew calendar. This year the Hebrew date comes out April 15-16 on the calendar used in the West.

Since Israel’s creation, it has been in a constant state of conflict with its neighbors, most recently eight days of exchanges last November with Palestinian militants firing rockets from the Gaza Strip. It has signed peace treaties with just two Arab nations, Egypt and Jordan.

Yet the country is thriving in other ways. It has weathered the global financial crisis better than most, with unemployment below 7 percent and a growing economy. As a “startup nation,” it has pioneered breakthroughs, including Wi-Fi technology, the computer firewall and instant messaging. In the past decade, Israeli scientists have won six Nobel prizes in chemistry and economics.

It has absorbed immigrants from more than 100 countries to host the world’s largest Jewish population, evolving from a largely agrarian backwater to consistently rank high in measures of standard of living. Israel has given the world international supermodels, and its war history has inspired Oscar-nominated films and a TV series that was adapted into “Homeland,” the award-winning American show.

“The state of Israel is truly a fantastic success story, perhaps among the greatest success stories of the 20th century,” said Tom Segev, an Israeli author and historian. “There’s an Israeli culture, a renewal of the Hebrew language. The most amazing thing is that we now have a third generation of Israelis for whom the country is a given. ‘Israeliness’ has become something that we take for granted.”

On the other hand, Segev noted that the country is still grappling with the same basic issue that plagued it in 1948 — its relations with the Palestinians.

Israel still does not have internationally recognized borders, and remains in control of about 2.5 million Arabs living in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel captured the areas, along with the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war, withdrawing from Gaza in 2005. The Palestinians claim all three territories for a future state.

“We haven’t been able to solve this and we may not be able to solve it all,” Segev said. “Most Israelis look at the Palestinian issue as a military problem and not a political problem. As long as it is quiet and there is no terror, we think everything is fine.”

Israelis argue that the Palestinians have rejected generous peace offers, a claim the Palestinians reject, pointing to Israel’s construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a sign of bad faith.

Nahum Barnea, a veteran newspaper columnist, said that even if Israel can resolve its conflict with the Palestinians, its place in the heart of the Muslim world will never be certain.

“The occupation (of the West Bank) is an open wound. But even if the occupation were to miraculously end, the country’s relations with the rest of the world would not suddenly be solved,” he said. “Our struggle is not behind us. It is with us and ahead of us.”

Israel has serious internal problems as well.

About 20 percent of its 8 million citizens are Arabs, who are often treated like second-class citizens and frequently identify with the Palestinians.

Nearly 10 percent of Israelis are ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have clashed with the general public over their dependence on welfare instead of work, refusal to serve in the military and attempts to impose their strict practices on broader society.

More than half of Israel’s first grade students are now either Arab or ultra-Orthodox Jews, predicting a future demographic makeup that is less loyal to the state and less productive to its workforce.

Israel’s transformation into a high-tech, knowledge-based economy has also fueled a growing gap between rich and poor, setting off protests in the summer of 2011 against the country’s high cost of living.

Despite all their issues, Israelis are among the world’s happiest people. Recent surveys by the OECD, Gallop and the United Nations’ World Happiness Report all had Israel near the top.

Most Israelis appear to have developed an ability to block out the nation’s problems and focus on life in a country that just a century ago was just a dream.

“Israelis feel that things are good with them, but not with the state,” Segev said.

JERUSALEM: Thousands of outraged Palestinians took to the streets of the West Bank on Thursday, joining funeral processions and demonstrations after two protesters were killed by Israeli troops and a Palestinian prisoner died of cancer in Israeli custody.

The unrest clouded an upcoming visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and underscored the difficult task he faces as he tries to restart peace talks in the coming months.

The demonstrations were among the largest in the West Bank in months, and came amid rising violence. But officials on both sides urged calm, and by nightfall, the situation appeared to be quieting down.

Israeli troops had been on heightened alert since Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, a 64-year-old prisoner, died Tuesday from throat cancer. The Palestinians have blamed Israel for not giving him proper treatment.

Tensions rose further Wednesday when two Palestinian youths were killed in the northern West Bankafter throwing firebombs toward Israeli troops. In an apparent show of solidarity with Abu Hamdiyeh, militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets into Israel for three straight days, drawing Israeli retaliation, in the greatest challenge yet to a cease-fire reached in November.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was responsible for the violence, claiming it was trying to divert attention from a four-year standstill in peace efforts.

“It seems that Israel wants to spark chaos in the Palestinian territories,” he said. “From the beginning, we have said we want stability and calm. Despite that, Israel on every occasion is using lethal force against peaceful young protesters, and peaceful demonstrations are being suppressed with the power of weapons. This is not acceptable at all.”

In the most serious unrest, thousands of people took part in a funeral procession for Abu Hamdiyeh in Hebron.

The issue of Palestinian prisoners is deeply emotional in Palestinian society. Nearly every Palestinian family has a member or close acquaintance who has spent time in an Israeli prison, and the 4,500 Palestinians being held by Israel are seen as heroes standing up to Israeli occupation. Israel says the prisoners are criminals and terrorists. Abu Hamdiyeh had been serving a life sentence for involvement in an attempt to carry out a suicide bombing in a crowded Jerusalem restaurant a decade ago.

Mourners carried Abu Hamdiyeh’s body through the streets of the town, while chanting anti-Israel slogans and burning U.S. flags. Masked gunmen fired into the air, while Abu Hamdiyeh was given a full military burial.

Several hundred people later clashed with Israeli troops, hurling stones and firebombs toward forces who responded with tear gas and rubber-coated bullets to disperse the crowd. Several people were taken away in ambulances, but no serious casualties were reported.

In the northern West Bank, hundreds of people turned out for funeral processions for the two youths, aged 17 and 19, who were killed late Wednesday. The Israeli army said it opened fire after a military checkpoint was attacked with firebombs. The funeral march remained peaceful, in part because of Palestinian security forces standing nearby.

Smaller clashes were reported at several locations elsewhere in the West Bank, but the unrest appeared to be quickly contained.

While Israeli officials frequently express concern of a new Palestinian uprising starting, both sides have an interest in keeping things under control.

Israel clearly does not want a return to the days of the uprising a decade ago, when Palestinian suicide bombers frequently attacked major cities. Israel also has come under increasing international criticism for its settlement policies in the West Bank and faces pressure to improve conditions for Palestinians under its control at a time when peace efforts are not moving. A heavy military crackdown could draw additional criticism.

The Palestinians suffered heavy casualties and damage in the previous bout of fighting and seem to have little desire for renewed hostilities. They are eager to capitalize on the international anger toward Israeli settlements and could see this support dissipate if major violence and attacks on Israeli targets were to resume.

“The Palestinians have an interest in controlling the violence, and that is a mutual interest that we have so we don’t see it spinning beyond that,” said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman. Nonetheless, he said the Palestinians were playing a “very dangerous game.”

“You know where you begin with this violence. You don’t know where it ends and that, for us, is a red light, something that we have to follow very closely,” he said.

With Kerry expected in the region Sunday, the Palestinians accused Israel of undermining the visit. He plans to meet with both sides in search of a formula to restart peace talks. U.S. officials have said he will largely be listening to each side for fresh ideas on how to break four years of deadlock. A breakthrough may be tough to achieve, partly because hard-line West Bank settlers hold key positions in Israel’s new government, and many of them resist granting concessions to the Palestinians.

“The Israeli government is responsible for the escalation and its dangerous consequences on the American efforts that aim to resume negotiations,” said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Abbas.

Abbas has refused to negotiate while Israel continues to build settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim for a future state. He says the settlements, now home to more than 500,000 Israelis, make it ever more difficult to partition the land and that continued construction is a sign of bad faith.

Israel, which captured the areas in the 1967 Mideast war, has refused to halt settlement construction and says negotiations should begin without any preconditions.

Abbas governs in the West Bank, while the rival Hamas movement controls the Gaza Strip. Abbas hopes to establish an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza. Hamas’ rule over Gaza, seized from Abbas’ forces six years ago, is a major complicating factor since the Islamic militant group opposes peace with Israel.

Early Thursday, Gaza militants fired rockets toward Israel for a third straight day. The rockets, and an Israeli airstrike Wednesday, have strained a cease-fire brokered by Egypt in November after eight days of heavy fighting. Israeli leaders have warned that their patience is growing thin and threatened tougher retaliation if the rocket fire continues.

Hamas, which has close ideological ties with Egypt’s Islamic rulers, also has an interest in keeping things quiet. The group has been working to halt the rocket fire, which is believed to have been carried out by radical, al-Qaida-inspired groups that oppose any accommodation with Israel.

Even so, the Israeli military said Thursday it had moved a battery of its new Iron Dome rocket-defense system to the southern resort town of Eilat.

Eilat is located near Egypt’s Sinai Desert, where al-Qaida-linked groups have staged attacks against Israel.