The demonstration was called in solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem and followed a spate of attacks by Palestinians against Israelis and reprisals by Jews against Arabs.
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“All the violence needs to stop and calm should be restored”, he said.
Meanwhile, Palestinian sources say at least two rockets fried from the Gaza Strip hit southern occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel’s Prime Minister has condemned an Israeli stabbing attack that injured 4 Arabs.
New clashes erupted Friday in Gaza, where Israeli forces opened fire and killed six Palestinians – including a 15-year-old – and wounded 80, according to medics.
The attacks initially were confined to east Jerusalem and the West Bank – both territories captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 war and claimed by the Palestinians for a future state – but spread to Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities this week.
The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, called on Palestinians to step up their fight against Israel, describing the recent surge in violence in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank as the beginning of a new uprising, or “intifada”.
He was buried as violence continued with multiple stabbing attacks in Jerusalem, the West Bank and elsewhere in Israel on Friday.
Last week, Palestinians shot two Israelis to death in front of their children in the West Bank. After his arrest, the assailant said he acted in retaliation for the numerous Palestinian attacks, Israeli media reported. He said this week was not the first time he has gone out with his weapon and earlier this year, he and his bodyguard, unarmed, subdued a Palestinian attacker. In a separate incident, Palestinians killed two Israeli men and wounded a mother and toddler in Jerusalem.
Spokeswoman Luba Samri said a member of the country’s Bedouin minority was found injured with a knife laying at his side.
Thirteen of Israel’s 120 MPs are Arabs.
Barkat said Israel’s well-armed citizenry plays a key role in this strategy, stopping attackers quickly in cases when police aren’t around. She said the attacks were likely “nationalistically” motivated.
The Al-Aqsa compound is the third-holiest site in Islam and the most sacred for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.
Unrest began about three weeks ago as Palestinians repeatedly barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa mosque and hurled rocks and firebombs at police.
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The unrest in Jerusalem has been fueled by Palestinian allegations that Israel is plotting to change a sensitive arrangement at the holy site, revered by Jews as the spot where the biblical Temples were built and by Muslims as the place where the Prophet Muhammed is believed to have ascended to heaven.
