The Israeli authorities has deployed more than 3,000 policemen throughout Jerusalem ahead of the annual Jerusalem Day flag march, which begins on Thursday afternoon, Palestinian media reported.
The march comes less than a week after a ceasefire ended five days of fighting from May 9 to May 13 between Israeli forces and Gaza militants.
Israel set up military roadblocks on the main roads, under the pretext of securing the “flag march” that it is organizing.
Israel is preparing for the possibility of launching rockets from Gaza into Jerusalem, as happened in 2021, according to the Hebrew newspaper , Yedioth Ahronoth.
The Israeli army deployed the Iron Dome system in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and the defense system’s batteries were put on alert throughout the country.
Tens of thousands are expected to attend the march which begins in West Jerusalem and passes through the Damascus Gate and the Muslim Quarter in the Old City to the “Al-Buraq Wall”, which the Jews call the “Western Wall”.
Dozens of settlers, including Minister of Transportation Miri Regev, began waving Israeli flags while singing in Damascus Gate Square, one of the most famous gates of the Old City, while Palestinians raised their country’s flags in rejection of the march.
Early on Thursday, hundreds of Jews entered Al Aqsa Mosque compound.
Flag March takes places on Jerusalem Day is “celebrated” annually on the 28th of Iyer, according to the Hebrew calendar, and commemorates the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem after the 1967 Six Day War.
During the annual march, the participants carry Israeli flags and shout racist slogans against the Palestinians, including “Death to the Arabs,” as has happened in recent years, before performing the “flag dance” in the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians consider a “provocation” of their feelings.
