OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli police deployed in force throughout Jerusalem on Tuesday as an annual Jewish march got underway and as tensions simmered in the Holy City after two days of clashes with Palestinian youths.
"We are maintaining a state of alert and are deploying in force," police spokesman Shmuel Ben Rubi told AFP, adding that about 2,000 police officers and border guards were on the streets.
Thousands of people began to march through the streets of Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of Sukkot, with one group passing through the mostly Arab eastern part of the city. No violence was reported by late afternoon.
Tensions have run high since Sunday after authorities closed the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City, claiming people were inciting violence. Clashes broke out, with several Palestinian protesters arrested.
There were more clashes on Monday. Palestinian youths hurled stones at police in several neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem, with one officer stabbed in the neck and lightly wounded and 20 Palestinians arrested.
On Tuesday, Israeli authorities continued to limit access to the mosque compound in the Old City to Muslim men aged 50 and over, with no restrictions for women. Jews and Christians were also prohibited.
Amid the ongoing tension, Vice Premier Silvan Shalom told public radio "the battle is under way for sovereignty over Jerusalem and particularly over the Temple Mount".
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel of deliberately escalating tensions in East Jerusalem, warning that it was like "lighting matches in the hope of sparking a fire".
"What makes this all the more dangerous is the vacuum created by the absence of a credible peace process that offers hope instead of more settlements" on Palestinian land, he said.
For his part, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "is following the events of recent days from his home and is being updated constantly and carrying out consultations with the internal security minister and the other security organisations", his office said.
Tension flared on Sunday near Al Aqsa compound, known to Muslims as Al Haram Al Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
The site is the holiest in Judaism and third holiest in Islam, and has often been a flashpoint for Palestinian-Israeli violence.
The second Palestinian Intifada broke out there in September 2000 after a visit by Ariel Sharon, the right-wing politician who became Israeli prime minister the following year.
The annual Sukkot marches in Jerusalem, with participants varying from Israeli health enthusiasts walking for the sport to foreign evangelical Christians showing support for Israel, have taken on an increasingly nationalist flavour over the past several years.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. It considers the city to be its "eternal, indivisible" capital.
The Palestinians want to make the eastern part of the city the capital of their promised state.
Reconciliation
Hamas warned on Tuesday that controversy over a damning UN report on the Gaza war could affect the Palestinian reconciliation deal that Egypt had announced would be signed on October 26 in Cairo.
"All the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, are angry at the [Palestinian] Authority after what happened with the Goldstone report and this could affect the arrangements for the [reconciliation] dialogue," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told AFP.
But he declined to say whether the signing of the reconciliation deal would likely again be postponed.
"According to Egyptian arrangements up to now, the delegations are due to go to Cairo... and Egypt is to fix the date of the signing of the deal," he said.
In Ramallah, Erakat confirmed that a deal is due to be signed on October 26 "in the presence of Arab and international personalities".
Egypt, which has been brokering Palestinian reconciliation talks, announced on Monday that factions would meet in Cairo on October 25 and sign their long-awaited reconciliation agreement the following day.
Hamas has been at the forefront of criticism levelled at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the rival Fateh faction, for last week agreeing that the UN Human Rights Council defers a vote on a report on the Gaza war compiled by South African judge Richard Goldstone.
The Geneva-based council was to consider whether to pass the report to the UN Security Council and the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, but decided to defer its vote until March 2010 after the Palestinian delegation agreed to the move, reportedly under US pressure.
Fateh and Hamas have increasingly been at odds since January 2006, when the Islamists routed the long-dominant secular party in Palestinian parliamentary elections.
The two parties had signed a reconciliation deal in Saudi Arabia in February 2007 after months of escalating tensions dissolved into deadly Gaza street clashes.
But four months later the tension boiled over again and a week of deadly street battles ended with Hamas routing pro-Fateh forces from Gaza in June 2007, effectively cleaving the Palestinians into two separate entities.
Exchange of fire
Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire with Israeli forces east of Gaza City near the border fence on Tuesday, the Israeli military said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Palestinian medics said Israeli forces fired tank shells in the Shujaiyah area but could not say if anyone was wounded or killed because ambulances have not yet been able to reach the area near the border.
A military spokesman said Palestinian gunmen had fired on Israeli civilians working on the border fence.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said it had launched a mortar round from Shujaiyah around the time of the incident.
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