Israeli nationalists march in Jerusalem's Muslim quarter

STORY: The parade is the main celebration on Jerusalem Day, when Israel marks its capture of Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. The event has increasingly become a show of force for Jewish nationalists and, for Palestinians, a blatant provocation meant to undermine their ties to the city.

Around 2,500 officers were safeguarding the march and trying to keep it peaceful, police said, having prepared for all scenarios, including violence and anti-Arab chants by some marchers toward Palestinians and rocket fire from Gaza.

Many Palestinians shuttered their shops in the Old City, where march organizers hung Israeli flags along the cobblestoned alleyways. Rowdy crowds of Jewish youth were seen dancing and chanting, and in some cases confronting Palestinian youth.

As crowds gathered at the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City, a handful of flags belonging to Lehava, a far-right anti-Arab group, could be seen among the mass of blue and white Israeli national flags.

Israel, which decades ago annexed East Jerusalem in a move that has not won international recognition, regards the entire city as its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem, the part captured by Israel in 1967, as the capital of a future state that would include the West Bank and Gaza.