Thousands of Israelis, including government ministers, marched towards the evacuated outpost of Evyatar in the occupied West Bank on Monday in support of settlement expansion and in protest against recent Palestinian attacks.
Men, women and children marched the winding road leading to the illegal outpost, some carrying flags. Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital – territories Israel captured in a 1967 war.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged this year, with frequent military raids in the occupied West Bank amid a spate of Palestinian attacks. Tensions have been especially high following Israeli police raids on Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound last week, which triggered rocket attacks on Israel that were met with Israeli strikes in Gaza, south Lebanon and Syria.