TEL AVIV, Nov. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Tens of thousands of Israelis on Saturday poured into the Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, where former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered 10 years ago.

    Holding signs with slogans such as "The path to peace will never be killed," the crowd stood for a moment's silence and sang memorial songs on the square, which has seen numerous peace rallies since Rabin's assassination in 1995.

    Rabin was shot dead by an ultranationalist Israeli Jew who opposed his 1993 interim peace deal with the Palestinians, for which he shared a Nobel Peace Prize with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

    Rabin came to believe that in exchange for real peace the Jewish state should withdraw from the Gaza Strip and large parts of the West Bank, two territories occupied while he was chief of staff in the 1967 Middle East war.

    At Saturday's rally, an enormous picture of Rabin was hung behind the stage next to the words "10 Years After The Murder" as thousands of sombre Israelis as far as the eye could see listened to speeches and songs in the name of peace.

    The rally began with a played recording of Rabin's last speech,an address against violence, delivered in the same square one hourbefore he was shot by Yigal Amir.

    Waving Israeli flags and banners, some carrying candles, the crowd stood shoulder to shoulder, faces tilted toward the stage towatch and listen to footage looking back on Rabin's life and the fateful night 10 years ago.

    Former US President Bill Clinton joined dozens of foreign dignitaries at the rally. Clinton, who helped broker the 1993 peace accord, said he had loved Rabin and urged Israelis see his work through.

    "There has not been a week in the last 10 years, not a single week when I have not thought of him and missed him. He is as real to me today as he was in his last day on this earth," Clinton toldthe rally.

    He urged the masses to carry on Rabin's legacy. "Remember if hewere here he would say... If you really think I lived a good life,if you think I made a noble sacrifice in death then for goodness sake take up my work and see it through to the end," he said.

    Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who also shared the1994 Nobel peace prize with Rabin and Arafat, delivered an impassioned plea for peace.

    "No one made peace in your place... You must give direction to an immense peace movement. We don't want candles of remembrance, but flames of hope," shouted the 82-year-old veteran statesman.

    The square is completely full. There are tens of thousands of people there. More than 1,500 police are securing the whole area, said national police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld.

    The rally begins a series of official ceremonies to honour Rabin's life and death that will culminate on Monday, when the anniversary falls in accordance with the Hebrew calendar.

    Polls find that Rabin is considered Israel's best prime minister since the Jewish state was set up in 1948.

    Saturday's demonstration was the biggest peace rally in Israel since its Gaza pullout on Sept. 12.

    Violence has worsened since Rabin's death, especially during the past five years of a Palestinian uprising in which more than 3,400 Palestinians and almost 1,000 Israelis have been killed. Enditem