JERUSALEM, Sunday, May 29, 2022 (WAFA) – Scores of extremist Israeli settlers performed a provocative march today through the Old City of Jerusalem, while waving Israeli flags and verbally harassing the local Palestinians, according to local sources and witnesses.

WAFA correspondent said the settlers under heavy police protection held a provocative dance and waved Israeli flags as they crossed the Damascus Gate and marched through the main thoroughfare in Jerusalem’s Old City all the way to the Western Wall.

During the march, the settlers shouted profanities at Palestinians and verbally assaulted some of them under police protection.

During the march, settlers reportedly assaulted and beat up three Palestinians, causing them minor injuries. One of the three was moved to hospital for treatment.

The latest march comes a few hours ahead of the highly contentious ‘flag march’ that is expected to draw thousands of Israeli Jewish settlers marking the anniversary of Israel’s occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem.

It also comes a few hours after hundreds of flag-waving Jewish settlers led by MK Itamar Ben-Gvir were allowed into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the morning hours of Sunday, in what Palestinians and Muslims considered a highly provocative development.

Earlier today, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, said that Israel was irresponsibly and recklessly playing with fire by allowing settlers to desecrate the holy sites in occupied Jerusalem and by escalating the killing of Palestinians.

Abu Rudeineh told Voice of Palestine radio that “Israel is disregarding the international community,” and that it “does not respect the decisions of international legitimacy, and considers itself to be above the law.”  

M.N