Millions of evangelical Christians in churches around the world prayed for the peace of Jerusalem on Sunday, calling for vigilance in protecting what they believe should remain an undivided city.

At a prayer ceremony in the Old City that kicked off the event, religious leaders said that a divinely-mandated obligation to bless Israel and pray for the peace of its capital was the impetus for the prayer day, an annual event that began in 2003.

The prayer session enlisted the support of some 150,000 churches worldwide and was also broadcast internationally on cable television's Christian station, God TV.

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Hundreds of local Christians participated in the Sunday morning prayer session. Israeli politicians also attended, and keynote speaker MK Natan Sharansky (Likud) called Jerusalem a "city of peace, not of appeasement," to raucous applause.