JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Jews planned to protest the opening of a parking lot during the sabbath after tens of thousands turned out for a similar protest a day earlier.

The series of protests in recent weeks, referred to in local media as the "Shabbat wars," have pitted the city's large and growing religious community against secular residents and local authorities.

Secular residents have planned a counter-demonstration to be held alongside the protest, and both were expected to begin later in the day.

The protests have centered on the decision by the municipality to require a parking lot outside the walls of the Old City to open on Friday and Saturday, when religious Jews observe a day of rest from sundown to sundown.

During "Shabbat," as the day is known in Hebrew, ultra-Orthodox Jews are forbidden from working, driving, handling money or using electric devices.

On Friday evening around 30,000 religious Jews turned out to protest the parking lot and small scuffles broke out with police and news photographers, according to public radio.

Leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis, including Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, the spiritual leader of the Shas party which holds 11 seats in Israel's 120-member Knesset, have urged their followers to protest the city's decision.

They fear the parking lot will bring thousands of tourists into the area and encourage local merchants to open their shops, thus "profaning" the sabbath.

The majority of Jerusalem's roughly 500,000 Jewish residents are religious and the ultra-Orthodox are the fastest-growing segment of the population. However, Mayor Nir Barkat, who was elected in November, is secular.