ANKARA, May 30 — The United Nations (UN) 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,” Anadolu Agency (AA) quoted the UN Special Coordinator for Peace in the Middle East, Tor Wennesland as saying 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, about 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 recognised 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 conflict.
The worst in years, the violence came to a halt under an Egyptian-brokered truce.
