By Hedaya al-Saeedi

GAZA CITY, Palestine 

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas organized a march near Gaza City on Friday in support of what it described as the "Al-Quds Intifada" ("Jerusalem Uprising") against Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land.

"The Al-Quds Intifada began almost one year ago," leading Hamas member Mushir al-Masri said in an address delivered on the march’s sidelines.

"Next year it will be even more powerful," he declared.

Al-Masri added: "This uprising won’t end until the demise of the Israeli enemy, until Al-Quds [Jerusalem] is liberated, and until our brothers are freed from Israeli prisons. We will not rest until this is achieved."

Marchers set out from the Al-Khulafaa al-Rashideen Mosque in the city of Beit Jabalia, located some 4 kilometers north of Gaza City.

The last year has seen numerous clashes between Palestinian youth and Israeli forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and along the blockaded Gaza Strip’s borders with Israel.

The clashes were initially sparked by repeated intrusions by extremist Jewish settlers -- in steadily mounting numbers -- into Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which Muslims consider the world’s third holiest site.

Over the course of the last year, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, either during alleged attacks on Israelis or in clashes with Israeli forces.

At least 35 Israelis have been killed in the violence over the same period.

There have been two previous Palestinian intifadas, in which hundreds were killed. The first continued from 1987 to 1993 and the second from 2000 to 2005.