Tens of thousands of Israelis commemorated the eighth anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin Saturday in a show of support for the long-stalled peace process.
Also Saturday, Palestinian leaders cautiously welcomed Israeli offers to welcome peace talks.
Before dawn yesterday, three Palestinians neared the Israel-Gaza border fence near the Sufa crossing, the army said. They dug in the sand near the fence, as though they were trying to plant a bomb, and soldiers fired on them, the army said. Two of the Palestinians were hit, but their condition was unknown, the army said. Searches were to take place at daybreak, the army said.
The rally took place in the Tel Aviv plaza where Rabin was fatally shot on Nov. 4, 1995, by an extremist Jew opposed to his peace efforts.
A large picture of Rabin hung behind the stage, with the words "Eight years since the murder." Many of the people in the crowd carried banners saying "There is no other way." Peace Now, a veteran activist group, hung a large sign, and a handful of people held signs saying, "Sharon go home."
Opposition leader Shimon Peres, who was with Rabin at the plaza moments before he was gunned down, told the crowd that he felt his old partner's presence at every memorial rally.
"Every time I mount these stairs, at this building, at this time of evening, it is as if I am coming to shake Yitzhak's hand," he said.
Peres said the road to peace is difficult, but the country must carry on.
"Without a clear decision, the Zionist enterprise will stand in mortal danger," he said. "Even the right has started to understand that it's better to have two states which will have to live in peace, than one state where two peoples fight forever over every piece of land, every drop of water."
On Friday, vandals spray-painted graffiti on a memorial on the spot where Rabin was shot and on a poster of Rabin hung in the square.
Workers used high-pressure water sprayers to clean white paint from the black memorial stones and plaque in the plaza. Security was extremely tight at the rally Saturday night.
Rabin's daughter described the vandals as "snakes" that had come out from under the rocks, then went on to praise the large turnout in tribute to her father.
"We came as a multitude to say in a loud voice, and with our legs and hands, `We have not forgotten,'" she told the crowd.
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