JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of mostly ultranationalist Israelis took part in an annual march through a dense Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday, with some stoking wartime tensions and chanting “Death to Arabs.”

Jerusalem, the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been mostly calm throughout the Israel-Hamas war, but the march could ignite widespread tensions, as it did three years ago, when it helped set off an 11-day war in Gaza.

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Marchers gathered outside the Damascus Gate, a central gathering place for Palestinians in east Jerusalem, chanted anti-Arab and anti-Islamic slogans, danced and waved Israeli flags as the procession kicked off.

Just before the march began, crowds scuffled with police and threw plastic bottles at at a journalist wearing a vest with the word PRESS emblazoned on it. Some chanted “Muhammad is dead!” referring to the Islamic prophet.

The march was taking place as tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza are high. The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel responded with a massive offensive that has killed over 36,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, displaced most of the territory’s population and caused widespread destruction.

The United States has thrown its weight behind a phased cease-fire and hostage release outlined by President Joe Biden last week. But Israel says it won’t end the war without destroying Hamas, while the militant group is demanding a lasting cease-fire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

The annual march commemorates “Jerusalem Day,” which marks Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital, but its annexation of east Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. The Palestinians, who seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, see the march as a provocation.

In past years, police have forcibly cleared Palestinians from the parade route, and large crowds of mostly ultranationalist youth have chanted “Death to Arabs,” “May your village burn” and other offensive slogans. The police say they are deploying 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 will follow 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.

As buses bringing young Jewish men in for the march thronged around the Old City’s centuries-old walls, Palestinian shopkeepers closed down in the Muslim Quarter in preparation.

The police stressed that the march would not enter the sprawling Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam. The hilltop on which it 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 a number of occasions going back decades.

Counterprotests were planned throughout the day. An Israeli group, Tag Meir, sent volunteers through the emptying city streets ahead of the march to distribute flowers to Christian and Muslim residents of the Old City.

JERUSALEM — Chanting “Death to Arabs” and singing “May your village burn,” groups of young Israeli Jews made their way through Muslim neighborhoods of Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday ahead of an annual march marking Israel’s conquest of the eastern part of the city.

Palestinian shopkeepers had closed up early and police lined the narrow alleys before the march that often becomes a rowdy and sometimes violent procession of ultranationalist Jews. A policeman raised his arms in celebration at one point, recognizing a marcher and going in for a hug. It was blazing hot, with temperatures hitting 98 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) in late afternoon.

A small group of protesters, including an Israeli member of parliament, meanwhile, stormed a compound in east Jerusalem belonging to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

The march commemorates Jerusalem Day — which marks Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war. The event, set to begin later in the day, threatens to inflame tensions that are already rife in the restive city amid nearly 600 days of war in Gaza.

Jerusalem lies at the heart of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, who each see the city as a key part of their national and religious identity. It is one of the most intractable issues of the conflict and often emerges as a flashpoint.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its eternal, undivided capital. Its annexation of east Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. Palestinians want an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Last year’s procession, which came during the first year of the war in Gaza, saw ultranationalist Israelis attack a Palestinian journalist in the Old City and call for violence against Palestinians. Four years ago, the march helped set off an 11-day war in Gaza.

Tour buses carrying young ultranationalist Jews lined up near entrances to the Old City, bringing hundreds from outside Jerusalem, including settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Police, who were calling the procession the “Dance of Flags,” said they had detained a number of individuals and “acted swiftly to prevent violence, confrontations and provocations.”

Speaking in an east Jerusalem archaeological park located in a Palestinian neighborhood, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to “preserve a united, whole Jerusalem, and the sovereignty of Israel.” He said the government was encouraging foreign embassies to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and investing billions of shekels in the city’s development.

Volunteers from the pro-peace organization Standing Together and the Free Jerusalem collective, which works with Palestinians in Jerusalem, tried to position themselves between the marchers and residents to prevent violence.

One shopkeeper swept the floor after the marchers tipped over his bale of bay leaves. A group of young Jewish Israelis followed a Palestinian woman through the streets, calling her “charmouta” — Arabic for “whore.”

“This is our home, this is our state,” shouted one protester at a Palestinian woman.

“Go away from here!” she responded, in Hebrew.

Increased Jewish visits to a flashpoint holy site

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the country’s police force, visited a flashpoint hilltop compound holy to Jews and Muslims, where the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are located today. One Israeli lawmaker, Yitzhak Kroizer, could be seen praying.

Perceived encroachments by Jews on the site have set off widespread violence on a number of occasions going back decades.

“We are marking a holiday for Jerusalem,” Ben-Gvir said Monday at the site, accompanied by other lawmakers and a rabbi. “There are truly many Jews flooding the Temple Mount. How nice to see that.”

Beyadenu, an activist group that encourages Jewish visits to the site, said dozens of people had ascended to the holy compound Monday draped in the Israeli flag, and had prayed there.

Since Israel captured the site in 1967, a tenuous understanding between Israeli and Muslim religious authorities at the compound has allowed Jews — who revere the site as the Temple Mount, the location of the biblical temples — to visit but not pray there.

Ben-Gvir says he is changing that status quo. Palestinians already say it has long been eroding because of an increase in Jewish visits to the site.

“Today, thank God, it is possible to pray on the Temple Mount,” Ben-Gvir said at the site, according to a statement from his office.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there has been no change to the status quo. Police said that Monday’s march would not enter the site.

For many in Israel, Jerusalem Day is a joyous occasion that marks a moment of redemption in their country’s history, when access to the key Jewish holy site of the Western Wall was restored and the city was unified. But over recent years, the Jerusalem Day march in the city has become dominated by young nationalist and religious Israelis and on some occasions has descended into violence.

“A huge statement is being made to the Arab world this Jerusalem day,” said Daniel Luria, executive director of settler organization Ateret Cohanim. “If they think they can wash the Jews away from Jerusalem, then they don’t understand the perseverance, they don’t understand the connection, and they don’t understand our relationship with God.”

He said that the racist songs and chants were coming from a subsection of “hot-headed youth” and “were not a tragedy.”

Protesters storm UN compound in Jerusalem

UNRWA West Bank coordinator Roland Friedrich said around a dozen Israeli protesters, including Yulia Malinovsky, one of the legislators behind an Israeli law that banned UNRWA, forcefully entered the compound, climbing its main gate in view of Israeli police.

Protesters held a banner calling for the compound to be turned into an Israeli settlement. Israel’s Housing Minister stated last year that he had instructed the ministry to “examine how to return the area to the State of Israel and utilize it for housing.”

Israel has accused the agency, which is the biggest aid provider in Gaza, of being infiltrated by Hamas, allegations denied by the U.N.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli police.

The compound has stood mainly empty since the end of January, after UNRWA asked staff not to work from there, fearing for their safety. The UN says it has not vacated the compound and that it is protected under international law.

Israeli youths argue with police during a march marking Jerusalem Day, an Israeli holiday celebrating the capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, in Jerusalem’s Old City, Monday, May 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

JERUSALEM – Chanting “Death to Arabs” and singing “May your village burn,” groups of young Israeli Jews made their way through Muslim neighborhoods of Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday during an annual march marking Israel’s conquest of the eastern part of the city.

Palestinian shopkeepers had closed up early and police lined the narrow alleys before the march that often becomes a rowdy and sometimes violent procession of ultranationalist Jews. A policeman raised his arms in celebration at one point, recognizing a marcher and going in for a hug. It was blazing hot, with temperatures hitting 98 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) in late afternoon.

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A small group of protesters, including an Israeli member of parliament, meanwhile, stormed a compound in east Jerusalem belonging to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

The march commemorates Jerusalem Day — which marks Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war. The event threatens to inflame tensions that are already rife in the restive city amid nearly 600 days of war in Gaza.

Jerusalem lies at the heart of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, who each see the city as a key part of their national and religious identity. It is one of the most intractable issues of the conflict and often emerges as a flashpoint.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its eternal, undivided capital. Its annexation of east Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. Palestinians want an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Last year’s procession, which came during the first year of the war in Gaza, saw ultranationalist Israelis attack a Palestinian journalist in the Old City and call for violence against Palestinians. Four years ago, the march helped set off an 11-day war in Gaza.

Tour buses carrying young ultranationalist Jews lined up near entrances to the Old City, bringing hundreds from outside Jerusalem, including settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Police, who were calling the procession the “Dance of Flags,” said they had detained a number of individuals and “acted swiftly to prevent violence, confrontations and provocations.”

Speaking in an east Jerusalem archaeological park located in a Palestinian neighborhood, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to “preserve a united, whole Jerusalem, and the sovereignty of Israel.” He said the government was encouraging foreign embassies to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and investing billions of shekels in the city’s development.

Volunteers from the pro-peace organization Standing Together and the Free Jerusalem collective, which works with Palestinians in Jerusalem, tried to position themselves between the marchers and residents to prevent violence.

One shopkeeper swept the floor after the marchers tipped over his bale of bay leaves. A group of young Jewish Israelis followed a Palestinian woman through the streets, calling her “charmouta” — Arabic for “whore.”

“This is our home, this is our state,” shouted one protester at a Palestinian woman.

“Go away from here!” she responded, in Hebrew.

Increased Jewish visits to a flashpoint holy site

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the country’s police force, visited a flashpoint hilltop compound holy to Jews and Muslims, where the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are located today. One Israeli lawmaker, Yitzhak Kroizer, could be seen praying.

Perceived encroachments by Jews on the site have set off widespread violence on a number of occasions going back decades.

“We are marking a holiday for Jerusalem,” Ben-Gvir said Monday at the site, accompanied by other lawmakers and a rabbi. “There are truly many Jews flooding the Temple Mount. How nice to see that.”

Beyadenu, an activist group that encourages Jewish visits to the site, said dozens of people had ascended to the holy compound Monday draped in the Israeli flag, and had prayed there.

Since Israel captured the site in 1967, a tenuous understanding between Israeli and Muslim religious authorities at the compound has allowed Jews — who revere the site as the Temple Mount, the location of the biblical temples — to visit but not pray there.

Ben-Gvir says he is changing that status quo. Palestinians already say it has long been eroding because of an increase in Jewish visits to the site.

“Today, thank God, it is possible to pray on the Temple Mount,” Ben-Gvir said at the site, according to a statement from his office.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there has been no change to the status quo. Police said that Monday’s march would not enter the site.

For many in Israel, Jerusalem Day is a joyous occasion that marks a moment of redemption in their country’s history, when access to the key Jewish holy site of the Western Wall was restored and the city was unified. But over recent years, the Jerusalem Day march in the city has become dominated by young nationalist and religious Israelis and on some occasions has descended into violence.

“A huge statement is being made to the Arab world this Jerusalem day,” said Daniel Luria, executive director of settler organization Ateret Cohanim. “If they think they can wash the Jews away from Jerusalem, then they don’t understand the perseverance, they don’t understand the connection, and they don’t understand our relationship with God.”

He said that the racist songs and chants were coming from a subsection of “hot-headed youth” and “were not a tragedy.”

Protesters storm UN compound in Jerusalem

UNRWA West Bank coordinator Roland Friedrich said around a dozen Israeli protesters, including Yulia Malinovsky, one of the legislators behind an Israeli law that banned UNRWA, forcefully entered the compound, climbing its main gate in view of Israeli police.

Protesters held a banner calling for the compound to be turned into an Israeli settlement. Israel’s Housing Minister stated last year that he had instructed the ministry to “examine how to return the area to the State of Israel and utilize it for housing.”

Israel has accused the agency, which is the biggest aid provider in Gaza, of being infiltrated by Hamas, allegations denied by the U.N.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli police.

The compound has stood mainly empty since the end of January, after UNRWA asked staff not to work from there, fearing for their safety. The UN says it has not vacated the compound and that it is protected under international law.

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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.

Open this photo in gallery: Israeli right-wing activists gather with Israeli national flags outside the Damascus Gate of the old city of Jerusalem on June 5.MENAHEM KAHANA/Getty Images

Thousands of mostly ultranationalist Israelis were taking part in an annual march through a sensitive Palestinian area of Jerusalem on Wednesday, with some stoking already surging wartime tensions by chanting “Death to Arabs.”

Jerusalem, the emotional heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been mostly calm throughout the Israel-Hamas war. But the annual march, seen as provocative by Palestinians, could ignite broader unrest, as it did three years ago, when it helped set off an 11-day war in Gaza.

Marchers convening outside the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s historic Old City, a central gathering place for Palestinians in east Jerusalem, chanted anti-Arab and anti-Islamic slogans, danced and waved Israeli flags as the procession kicked off.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has repeatedly made contentious visits to a sensitive Jerusalem holy site, said the march sent a message to Hamas.

“We are delivering a message from here to Hamas: Jerusalem is ours. Damascus Gate is ours,” he told marchers at the start of the rally. “And with God’s help total victory is ours,” Ben-Gvir said, referring to the war in Gaza, which he has demanded that Israel continue until Hamas is defeated.

Commenting on the march, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said “our people will not rest until the occupation is gone and an independent Palestinian state is established, with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Just before the march began, crowds scuffled with police and threw plastic bottles at a journalist wearing a vest with the word PRESS emblazoned on it. Police said they arrested 18 marchers “on suspicion of violent crimes, assault and threats and disorderly conduct.”

Open this photo in gallery: A journalist holds his head after he was attacked by participants of the annual Jerusalem Day march.Ammar Awad/Reuters

The march was taking place as tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza are high. The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel responded with a massive offensive that has killed over 36,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, displaced most of the territory’s population and caused widespread destruction.

The United States has thrown its weight behind a phased ceasefire and hostage release outlined by President Joe Biden last week. But Israel says it won’t end the war without destroying Hamas, while the militant group is demanding a lasting ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

The annual march commemorates “Jerusalem Day,” which marks Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital, but its annexation of east Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. The Palestinians, who seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, see the march as a provocation.

Police said they were deploying 3,000 security personnel to ensure calm and were seen arresting several Palestinian men before the march got underway, leading them away with their hands bound behind their backs.

Open this photo in gallery: Israeli police detain a participant of the march.Ammar Awad/Reuters

At the insistence of Ben-Gvir, who oversees the police, the march is following 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.

As buses bringing young Jewish men in for the march thronged around the Old City’s centuries-old walls, Palestinian shopkeepers closed down in the Muslim Quarter in preparation.

The police stressed that the march would not enter the sprawling Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam. The hilltop on which it 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 a number of occasions going back decades.

Counterprotests were planned throughout the day. An Israeli group, Tag Meir, sent volunteers through the emptying city streets ahead of the march to distribute flowers to Christian and Muslim residents of the Old City.