TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of Israelis marked the eighth anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin with a peace rally Sunday in Tel Aviv.
According to one estimate reported by the BBC, up to 100,000 gathered at the square where the prime minister was gunned down by a Jewish extremist on Nov. 4, 1995.
Demonstrators, who included campaigners against the troop presence in the Palestinian areas, waved banners in support of the "Geneva initiative," an unofficial plan drafted by Palestinians and Israeli leftists.
Rabin's Labor Party comrade Shimon Peres told the crowd that Palestinian leaders wanted to make peace.
Peres, who was with Rabin when he was killed, called for support for new Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei who is currently forming a new government.
"For his own people's good he is in favor of ending terrorism and we can consider him a partner," Peres said.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Friday he is prepared to hold talks with the new Palestinian prime minister.
In other developments, Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip fired on a group of gunmen near a border fence, reportedly killing one of them.
Palestinian sources said two other gunmen were wounded in the incident at the fence which separates the strip from Israel.
The Israeli army also reported that five of its soldiers had been lightly wounded by a bomb blast in the marketplace of Nablus on Saturday.
