AL-QUDS (Dispatches) –
Thousands of Zionist extremists, chanting “Death to Arabs,” paraded through the heart of the main Palestinian thoroughfare in Al-Quds’ Old City on Sunday, in a show of provocation that risked setting off a new wave of confrontations in the tense city.
The crowds were celebrating Al-Quds Day -- an Israeli holiday that marks the occupation of the Old City in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians see the event, which passes through the heart of the Muslim Quarter, as a provocation. Last year, the parade helped trigger an 11-day war with Gaza resistance fighters, and this year’s march drew condemnations from the Palestinians and neighboring Jordan.
The occupying regime of Israel said it deployed thousands of police and security forces for the event, and sporadic scuffles between Zionist and Palestinian groups erupted inside the Old City before the parade began.
At least 24 Palestinians were wounded in the Old City and the surrounding area, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said. Injuries included wounds from rubber-coated steel bullets, beatings and pepper spray.
Footage posted online showed settlers assaulting and pepper-spraying a Palestinian woman in her 50s.
Aida Saidawi, an Old City resident and activist, was taken away for treatment after the attack, which led to scuffles between Palestinians and Zionists.
As she was being evacuated via the Damascus Gate, another settler pepper-sprayed a passer-by and a man was seen pointing a gun at the frantic crowds, another video showed.
Other videos showed settlers obstructing journalists in the Old City and clashing with Palestinians.
The PRCS also reported that its medics were assaulted by police in the vicinity of Damascus Gate while they attempted to reach the wounded.
Speaking to Middle East Eye before the incident, Saidawi said the scene of Zionists storming al-Aqsa Mosque that morning had pained her.
“We know Al-Aqsa is only for Muslims, and we will not let go of it no matter the price,” Saidawi said. “We will stay here, in our mosques, our streets, our homes.”
According to a police count, more than 2,600 far-right zealots and settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque earlier on Sunday, performed group prayers and raised the occupying regime of Israel’s flag, in violation of decades-old international agreements that stipulate that only Muslims are allowed to pray at Al-Aqsa
As the march got underway, groups of extremist groups gathered outside Damascus Gate, waving flags, singing religious and nationalistic songs, and shouting “Death to Arabs,” and “Let your village burn down” before descending the Muslim Quarter in into the Old City.
The Flag March is a far-right parade associated with violence against Palestinians and the “display of incitement, Jewish dominance, and racism,” according to Israeli NGO Ir Amim.
Waving the Zionist flag while dancing and singing, marchers have in the past attacked Palestinian shops in the Old City and chanted anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian slogans.
Among the raiders this year was Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of a small extremist opposition party and a follower of the late racist rabbi, Meir Kahane, who entered with dozens of supporters under heavy police guard.
Palestinians shouted “God is great” as Ben-Gvir shouted “the Jewish people live.”
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the occupying regime of Israel is “playing with fire irresponsibly and recklessly.”
Jordan condemned Ben-Gvir’s visit to the site and warned that the “provocative and escalating march” could make things deteriorate further.
Gaza’s Hamas leaders praised what they called “the great heroism” shown by Palestinians at Al-Aqsa earlier Sunday. “The Islamic Palestinian Arab identity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque will be protected by our people and their valiant resistance with all their might,” said Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the group.
Last year’s march triggered an eleven-day conflict in May, during which Palestinian resistance groups on Gaza fired thousands of rockets at Zionist targets.
The brother of Hamas resistance movement’s leader Yahya Sinwar said in an interview that last year’s conflict laid down new ground rules in which firing rockets from the Gaza Strip became more viable.
Muhammad Sinwar, a senior commander in the Hamas military wing, made the remarks in a rare interview with the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network that was broadcast on Friday.
It came amid a spike in tensions with Hamas and other Palestinian resistance movements issuing warnings over the annual march by Zionists to mark the regime’s occupation of Al-Quds.
“When we warn Israel, every letter and every word means approval is given on the ground,” Sinwar said regarding the current tensions and warnings. “We know how to hurt Israel and put pressure on it.”
He said the Palestinian resistance has established “new equations,” knows Israel’s weak points, and “how to pressure it.”
“For us, shooting rockets at Tel Aviv is easier than drinking water,” said Sinwar, who said the Zionist regime has tried to take him out on a number of occasions in a targeted assassination.
He further revealed that a joint command center of Palestinian resistance movements in Gaza held meetings throughout the conflict with Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. Officers from the latter two were in the command center in the Gaza Strip, Sinwar said.
Sinwar said towards the end of the conflict the Palestinian resistance had planned to fire over 360 rockets at 14 cities including Haifa, Tel Aviv, Dimona and Eilat. Egypt mediated an eventual ceasefire.