Crowds gathered outside the Damascus Gate before marching through the Muslim Quarter. Tens of thousands of Israelis, many from nationalist groups, have taken part in the annual Jerusalem Day flag march to mark the capture of the east of the city in the war.
Palestinian shops along the procession route closed, amid a heavy Israeli police presence, with 3, officers deployed. Police later said that 18 people were arrested, including five for attacking journalists.
Palestinian journalist Saif Kwasmi was hit during an altercation with young Israeli men. The flag march is always tense, but fears of violence were higher this year because of the war in Gaza. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a special meeting in honour of Jerusalem Day that Israel was "surrounded by enemies" as it had been 57 year ago.
But we are an ancient people, a people of brave fighters. We stood up as one and we defended ourselves," he said. Jerusalem, with its major Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites, is at the heart of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel - which occupied the formerly Jordanian-held east of the city in , and effectively annexed it in in a move not recognised by most countries - regards the whole of Jerusalem as its capital.
Palestinian leaders want East Jerusalem - which is home to about , Palestinians and , Israeli settlers - to be the capital of a future independent Palestinian state. On the day of the Israeli flag march in , Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem, triggering a war in Gaza that lasted 11 days.
