Shortly before 7 a.m. Monday, Donald Trump began his day on Twitter by plugging the opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem this way: by plugging the event’s coverage on Fox News.
Meanwhile, here’s what was happening on the Gaza Strip, where dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops as they protested the move.
As of Monday 10 a.m. EDT, the BBC reports that at least 41 Palestinians have been killed and an additional 1,800 wounded at the hands of Israeli troops, according to Palestinian officials.
The violence surely doesn’t come as a surprise to the Trump administration—or anyone with a middling knowledge of the conflict between Palestine and Israel.
Jerusalem is disputed territory between the two states, and as the BBC reports, Israeli sovereignty over the historic holy city isn’t recognized internationally. Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem effectively drew an unprovoked line in the sand—breaking with years of U.S. neutrality on the issue, setting the country at odds with the international community (again) and escalating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinians threw stones and incendiary devices, with Israeli troops hitting the crowd with sniper fire, according to news reports.
The black smoke seen in the photographs comes from burning tires lit by the Palestinian demonstrators.
The mass demonstration Monday drew thousands of Palestinians to the Gaza border as part of a six-week protest that leaders of Gaza’s Islamic political party, Hamas, call the “Great March of Return.”
Monday’s violence—an outright massacre of Palestinians carried out by Israeli armed forces—marks the deadliest day of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians since the 2014 Gaza war, reports the BBC.
You wouldn’t know it from Trump’s tweets, of course.
At 9:36 a.m., as the death toll continued to mount on the Gaza border, Trump tweeted: “Big day for Israel. Congratulations!”