Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s call on Europe to join the United States in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, was strongly rebuffed by EU foreign ministers in Brussels who saw the move as a blow to the peace process, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took his own case to Egypt on Monday and was expected to fly to Turkey for a meeting of Muslim countries this week to cement support from leaders who denounce the US move as a dire error.

Last week, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, breaking with decades of US policy and international consensus that the city’s status must be left to Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a rocket into Israel and the Israeli military said it responded with air strikes and tank fire targeting a position of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the enclave.

On the ground in the Palestinian territories, violent clashes with Israeli security forces in which scores of Palestinians have been injured and several killed since the US announcement last week appeared to have mostly subsided.

Netanyahu, on his first visit to EU headquarters in Brussels, said Trump’s move helped peace, “because recognizing reality is the substance of peace, the foundation of peace”.

Israel, which annexed East Jerusalem after capturing it in a 1967 war, considers the entire city to be its capital.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state.

The Trump administration said it remains committed to the peace process and its decision does not affect Jerusalem’s future borders or status.