Israeli march to go ahead as planned

Today is Israel's Jerusalem Day, when the country celebrates its capture of the city's eastern neighbourhoods in the 1967 Middle East war, with Israelis marching through the Old City annually.

The so-called Flag March usually brings together thousands of young, far-right religious Israelis chanting anti-Palestinian slogans.

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israeli security officials have urged politicians to either postpone the march or limit the number of attendees and shorten the route in order to avoid adding fuel to the fire after a week of confrontations in the city between Palestinians and Israeli settlers and security forces.

However Israeli media is reporting that the march will go ahead as planned, with tens of thousands of Israelis set to head into occupied East Jerusalem's Old City through the Nablus Gate. It is set to kick off around 4pm Jerusalem time, just over an hour away.

Israeli settlers were seen this morning attempting to storm al-Aqsa Mosque through its Moroccan Gate. Jewish prayer in the mosque's courtyard is forbidden, but settlers often flout the rules.

Far-right Israelis believe Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel, while the Palestinian Authority and the vast majority of the international community have pushed for East Jerusalem to be the capital of Palestine as part of a two-state solution.

Efforts to displace Palestinians in favour of Israeli settlers - a move in violation of international law - have been described as seeking to erase Palestinian presence and identity from Jerusalem. This displacement - a war crime under international law - is at the heart of the Sheikh Jarrah dispute.