Tensions high as Israel nationalists march into east Jerusalem

Tens of thousands of Israeli nationalists marched to Jerusalem's Old City on Thursday in an annual flag-waving march commemorating Israel's capture of it, as tensions on the Gaza border remained high.

Palestinians in annexed east Jerusalem closed their shops and were banned from the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City, a social hub, to make way for the marchers, some of whom attacked journalists with rocks and bottles, an AFP reporter said.

Police said they made two arrests over the attack, one of an adult and one of a minor.

The United States, Israel's main ally, on Thursday condemned demonstrators' "racist" chants against Arabs, with AFP reporters saying that many of the marchers had shouted anti-Arab slogans.

"The United States unequivocally opposes racist language of any form. We condemn the hateful chants such as 'Death to Arabs' during today's marches in Jerusalem," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller wrote on Twitter.

In Gaza, thousands gathered for a rival flag day on the Israeli border, many of them holding Palestinian flags.

Israeli troops fired tear gas towards anyone approaching the border fence, AFP reporters said.

A Palestinian security source in Gaza said the territory's Islamist rulers, Hamas, fired a "warning rocket" into the sea, without elaborating.

Ahead of the Israeli march, the militant group said it "condemns the campaign of the Zionist occupation (Israel) against our Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem".

Two years ago, after weeks of violence in Jerusalem in which scores of Palestinians were wounded, a war between Hamas and Israel erupted during the march.

Speaking late Thursday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the celebrations were being held in Jerusalem "75 years after it was re-established as the capital of the reborn state of Israel, and 56 years after being reunited".

Two of his extreme-right cabinet members, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, attended Thursday's march, one of the events marking what Israelis refer to as Jerusalem Day.

"Today, we say to Hamas who threatened us: 'Jerusalem is ours,'" Ben-Gvir said in a statement.

Following the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel annexed east Jerusalem and its Old City in a move never recognised by the international community.

Thursday's rally took place days into a ceasefire that ended deadly cross-border fighting with Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza.

Thirty-three people, including multiple civilians, were killed in the blockaded Palestinian enclave and two in Israel, a citizen and a Gazan labourer.

Thursday's march began in the western part of the city before passing into east Jerusalem and through the Old City to the Western Wall, where about 50,000 people took part in the Jewish evening prayer, according to local authorities.

Those marching were mostly young men, with some wearing white T-shirts and carrying Israeli flags, as about 2,500 police officers looked on.

Before the march began, Palestinians with shops in the Old City closed up for the day.