Israeli provocative flag march to pass through occupied East Jerusalem's Damascus Gate

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - Police greenlighted Israeli illegal settlers' provocative flag march that will pass through occupied East Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, media reports said Thursday.

Israeli public broadcaster KAN said the flag march, scheduled for next week, will pass through the Damascus Gate as it has in previous years.

The meeting on approval for the march route was attended by three ministers, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

Police are yet to officially confirm the route of the march which is to celebrate what the illegal settlers mark as Jerusalem Day, in reference to the Israeli army's occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.

The march this year coincides with a tense situation across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, in addition to a devastating onslaught against the Gaza Strip that has been taking place for nearly eight months, and has so far killed more than 36,200 Palestinians.

In recent years, the provocative flag march triggered clashes with Palestinians, including 11 days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian groups in Gaza in May 2021.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar