Jewish protesters march through Jerusalem to denounce occupation

Several hundred mostly Jewish protesters marched in Jerusalem late Saturday to denounce nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, police said.

The demonstration's organisers and media estimated that some 2,000 people marched from West Jerusalem to near the Old City's Jaffa Gate to a platform bearing both Israeli and Palestinian flags.

Saturday's event was the first in a series organised by Standing Together, an umbrella movement consisting of pro-peace organisations and left-wing parties, marking 50 years since the Six-Day War, Haaretz said.

The rally is meant to "protest against the continued Israeli control over the territories and especially East Jerusalem, and in favour of a peaceful solution and justice for both peoples," the movement said in a statement.

Slogans such as "Jews and Arabs are not enemies" and "No to a government of annexation" were among chants heard in Hebrew and Arabic.

The protest came at a time when those who back the creation of a Palestinian state find it harder for their voices to be heard under a government considered to be the most right-wing in Israeli history.

Police said the demonstration passed off peacefully, despite tensions over an incident earlier in the day.

A Palestinian attacker from the West Bank who stabbed and wounded three Israelis was shot dead by police near the Old City's Damascus Gate.

Knesset Member Zehava Galon, the chairwoman of the Meretz party, addressed the rally, saying: "We can't keep the conflict with the Palestinians on the back burner, when the flame is on top of a barrel bomb. The stabbing attack in the Old City exposes the illusion that it's possible to deprive an entire people of rights and sovereignty without the desperation turning into horrible hatred and violence."

On Wednesday, a Palestinian woman who attacked border guards with scissors was shot dead in the same area.