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Thousands of mainly Israeli religious nationalists took part Wednesday in an annual march through a densely populated Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem's Old City, with some of them chanting "Death to Arabs" in commemoration of Israel's capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war.
Marchers convened outside the Damascus Gate, a central gathering place for Palestinians in east Jerusalem, chanting anti-Arab and anti-Islamic slogans, while dancing and waving Israeli flags as the procession kicked off. Some in the crowd scuffled with police, with five arrested for throwing objects at journalists.
Jerusalem, at the center of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been mostly calm during the nearly eight-month Israeli war with Hamas militants in Gaza. But the annual march is seen as provocative by Palestinians. In 2021, Hamas launched a barrage of rockets toward Jerusalem as that year's march began, triggering a 12-day conflict in Gaza that also saw Jewish-Arab violence in Israeli cities.
The militant group urged Palestinians "to make today, Wednesday, a day of anger."
This year's march follows the shock October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 36,550 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital, but its annexation of east Jerusalem in 1967 is not internationally recognized. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a two-state solution to resolve Mideast tensions.
Israeli police deployed 3,000 security personnel to ensure calm. At the insistence of Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the police, the march followed its traditional route, entering the Muslim Quarter of the Old City through Damascus Gate and ending at the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray. Palestinian shopkeepers closed in the Muslim Quarter in preparation.
Police said the march would not enter the sprawling Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam. The hilltop where the mosque stands is the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of the Jewish temples in antiquity.
Perceived encroachments on the site have set off widespread violence on several occasions going back decades.
Some material in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.