More than 3,000 police were deployed in and around the Holy City on Wednesday as Israelis marked Jerusalem Day to remember when they seized its Arab eastern sector 44 years ago, during the Six Day War.

"We have deployed extra police, border guards and civil guard volunteers, particularly in the eastern part of the city and in and around the Old City to maintain public order during the ceremonies," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse.

Palestinians will march on Israel's borders from neighboring Arab states on Sunday to mark the 1967 Six Day War, a top Fatah commander said, calling on the United Nations to protect the protesters.

"We, who hope to return to our lands in Palestine, are planning a peaceful rally this Sunday" at the Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian borders with Israel as well as the Gaza Strip, Fatah commander in Lebanon Munir Maqdah told Agence France Presse.

Israeli troops arrested 12 suspected members of Islamic Jihad overnight near the northern West Bank town of Jenin, the army said on Tuesday.

Palestinian security forces confirmed the arrests, saying two of those detained were women.

The Egyptian government is having difficulty exerting full control over the Sinai Peninsula, allowing terror groups to flourish there, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

Netanyahu, who was addressing the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, also said that changes in the region had seen the Hamas movement begin to shift its activities from its headquarters in Syria to Egypt.

The Israeli military is preparing for the possibility of violent protests along its borders in the coming days, aiming to avoid a repeat of deadly unrest that erupted earlier this month, a senior military official told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Facebook-organized activists have called for demonstrations next weekend in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan to mark the anniversary of the 1967 Mideast war, in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip east Jerusalem and Golan Heights.

Iran's top trade official has denied that a public company in Iran, which does not recognize the Jewish state, bought a ship from an Israeli firm as claimed by Washington, local media said on Sunday.

"Based on the laws of the country, any kind of trade or economic transaction with the Zionist regime and its affiliated firms is against the law," the chairman of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines (ICCIM), Mohammad Nahavandian, was quoted as saying.

Egypt on Saturday reopened its Rafah border crossing with Gaza, allowing people to cross freely for the first time in four years, in a move hailed by Hamas but criticized by Israel.

Among the first to cross the reopened border post were two ambulances ferrying patients from the hitherto-blockaded Gaza Strip for treatment in Egypt as well as a minibus carrying a dozen visitors, an Agence France Presse correspondent reported.

The DJ who remixed a rambling speech by Libya's Moammer Gadhafi with club beats that went viral on YouTube has taken on a new regional leader -- Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, better known as "Bibi."

First Israeli musician and DJ Noy Alooshe transformed a 75-minute Gadhafi oration into a catchy dance track called "Zenga, Zenga," featuring the strongman alongside footage of a gyrating girl in hotpants.

Former Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi has said that Hizbullah poses the greatest challenge to the Jewish state’s military.

"Despite the criticism against the Second Lebanon War, deterrence has increased in its wake…. Still, if Hizbullah wanted to, it could fire a massive amount of rockets at nearly any point on Israel's map,” Ashkenazi said during a conference at Bar Ilan University on Wednesday.

Egypt will open the Rafah border crossing on a daily basis starting this weekend in a bid to ease the blockade on the Gaza Strip, the official MENA news agency reported on Wednesday.

Palestinians will now be able to travel through Rafah -- Gaza's only crossing that bypasses Israel -- under entry rules in place before the blockade was tightened in 2007.