Tens of thousands of Israelis, many from nationalist groups, took part in the annual Jerusalem Day flag march to commemorate the capture of the city’s east during the 1967 war.
Crowds waving Israeli flags and chanting anti-Arab slogans gathered outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate before marching through the Muslim quarter toward the Western Wall, an act that Palestinians viewed as a provocation.
Palestinian shops along the parade route were closed due to the deployment of 3,000 Israeli police.
Police later said a total of 18 people had been arrested, including five for assaulting journalists.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper – whose reporter Neil Hassen was among the attackers – Hundreds of young people reportedly rampaged through Muslim areas ahead of the event, chanting “Death to Arabs” and attacking Palestinians and others.
Flag marches are always tense, but fears of violence are heightened this year because of the war in Gaza.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir participated in the march and said at the beginning of the march that this was a message to Hamas: “Jerusalem is ours.”
“With God’s help, complete victory is ours,” he added.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a special meeting to mark Jerusalem Day that Israel was “surrounded by enemies” just as it was 57 years ago.
“They want to strangle us and wipe us off the map. But we are an ancient people, a people of brave warriors. We unite and defend ourselves,” he said. “We are also targeting Hamas in the south today, Hezbollah in the north and Iran in the east.”
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh condemned what he called “settler atrocities” in Jerusalem.
“Our people will not rest until the occupation ends,” he vowed.
Jerusalem, home to major Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites, is at the heart of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel occupied the former Jordanian-controlled area east of the city in 1967 and effectively annexed the city in 1980, a move not recognized by most countries.
Palestinian leaders want East Jerusalem – home to some 350,000 Palestinians and 230,000 Israeli settlers – to become the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.
On the day of the Israeli flag parade in 2021, Hamas fired rockets into Jerusalem, triggering an 11-day war in the Gaza Strip.
The current war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
The Hamas-run health ministry said at least 36,580 people have been killed in Gaza since then.
