Clashes have broken out in the occupied Palestinian West Bank and Gaza after news the US embassy in Israel will move to Jerusalem in May. A leaked statement said the controversial move will coincide with Israeli Independence Day.

“By the end of next year, we intend to open a new Embassy Jerusalem annex on the Arnona compound that will provide the ambassador and his team with expanded interim office space,” the statement reads.

“We are excited about taking this historic step, and look forward with anticipation to the May opening,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert noted.

The document says that a new extension will be added to that building in 2019, to provide office space for the ambassador while a permanent home for the embassy is found.

“In parallel, we have started the search for a site for our permanent embassy to Israel, the planning and construction of which will be a longer-term undertaking.”

Earlier on Friday President Donald Trump defended his decision last December to recognize Israel’s claim to Jerusalem as its capital, which prompted huge protests across the occupied Palestinian territories, that have left at least 19 Palestinians and Israelis dead.

Trump said many previous presidents had made the move an election promise but failed to fulfill it. “But I get it,” he said. “I was hit by more countries, more pressure, begging me ’don’t do it, don’t do it!’. So I get it.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the news as: "a great day for the people of Israel." But Palestine Liberation Organisation Secretary-General Saeb Erekat countered that view. He claimed it showed Washington’s “determination to violate international law, destroy the two-state solution and provoke the feelings of the Palestinian people as well as of all Arabs, Muslims and Christians around the globe."

"Trump and his team have disqualified the US from being part of the solution between Israelis and Palestinians; rather, the world now sees that they are part of the problem," Erekat said.