Crowds of Israelis streamed through Jerusalem's Old City, where some scuffled with residents and hurled insults at Palestinians, as annual celebrations of Israel's capture of east Jerusalem took place on Monday.

Jerusalem Day, as the celebrations are known, commemorates Israeli forces taking east Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem, including the annexed Palestinian-majority east, its indivisible capital. The international community, however, does not recognise this, and Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Monday visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, to mark the occasion, which was being held for a second year under the shadow of the war in Gaza.

"I ascended to the Temple Mount for Jerusalem Day, and prayed for victory in the war" and the return of hostages held in Gaza, said the national security minister, whose past visits to the site have sparked anger among Palestinians and their supporters.

The Al-Aqsa mosque is Islam's third-holiest site and a symbol of Palestinian national identity.

The Temple Mount is Judaism's holiest place, though Jews are forbidden from praying there.

Every year, thousands of Israeli nationalists, many of them religious........

© Al Monitor