Israeli security forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to break up groups of Palestinian stone-throwers today as annual Land Day rallies turned violent.
Palestinian activists have called for a "Global March to Jerusalem" to mark the day when Israeli Arabs protest against government policies that they say has stripped them of land.
Israeli forces were put on high alert at frontier crossings with Lebanon and Syria, but there were no reports of any protesters nearing the border fences, unlike last year when several demonstrators were killed there in Land Day protests.
However, violence flared at checkpoints in the occupied West Bank to the north and south of Jerusalem.
Witnesses also reported disturbances at gates leading into the Old City, with police looking to limit access to the revered al-Aqsa Mosque.
A Reuters reporter saw two men being carried away injured after scuffles at Jerusalem's Lions' Gate, while police said they had made several arrests at the nearby Damascus Gate.
Jerusalem is a focal point of conflict, as Palestinians want the city's eastern sector, captured by Israel in a 1967 war, as capital of a future state. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem as part of its capital and insists the city remain united.
"We are determined to march together toward Jerusalem, and hopefully we will break through and reach it," said a masked youth, calling himself Rimawi, as he faced off against soldiers in the West Bank city Ramallah, a short distance from Jerusalem.
Flag-waving crowds neared the Qalandiya crossing out of Ramallah, some of them hurling stones at the security forces, but were forced back when border police sprayed them with foul smelling liquid from a water cannon.
Land Day commemorates the killing by security forces of six Arabs in 1976 during protests against government plans to confiscate land in northern Israel's Galilee region.
Previous remembrances have mostly passed quietly, but Israel decided to reinforce its defences following deadly clashes along the Lebanese and Syrian borders in May that appeared to catch the military off guard.
An Israeli army officer told Reuters the Golan ceasefire line with Syria had been fortified with a new fence and land mines, and that violence on last year's scale was unlikely.
Sources in Lebanon said today that Lebanese forces had deployed along the border and the coast in an effort to prevent any protesters from nearing Israel.
Palestinian organisers say they intend only peaceful rallies against "the policies and practices of the racist Zionist state".
Israel is wary of possible violence, with peace talks stalled for months and Palestinian leaders refusing to return to the negotiating table until Israel halts all Jewish settlement building in the West Bank.
Leading Palestinian activist Marwan Barghouti, serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli jail for orchestrating suicide attacks, called on Monday for a new wave of civil resistance in the decades-long quest for statehood.
On high alert along its borders, police were also wary of possible friction within the boundaries of Israel, where the Arab minority was planning protests.Arabs make up about a fifth of Israel's total population.
Many complain of discrimination. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently called for improved efforts to integrate Arab citizens into Israel's work force.
Reuters