UN urges Palestinians, Israelis to avoid violence amid tension over Jerusalem flag march

By Mohammad Tareq

ANKARA (AA) - The United Nations on Sunday called on the Palestinians and Israelis to exercise self-restraint and avoid violence amid rising tensions over a flag march by Israeli settlers in occupied East Jerusalem.

"I am deeply concerned about the spiraling of violence that has taken too many Palestinian and Israeli lives in recent weeks," UN Special Coordinator for Peace in the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, said in a statement.

Wennesland urged all sides "to exercise maximum restraint and make wise decisions to avoid another violent conflict."

The call for restraint comes as thousands of Israeli settlers staged a flag march to mark what they call the day of unifying Jerusalem, in reference to Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967.

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

Clashes surrounding last year’s flag march led to an 11-day Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip during which more than 260 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured. Thirteen Israelis were also killed in Palestinian fire from Gaza during the course of the conflict. The violence, the worst in years, came to a halt under an Egyptian-brokered truce.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara