JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister is visiting the volatile West Bank city of Hebron under tight security in a move widely perceived as a bid to garner support from ultranationalists ahead of elections in less than two weeks.

Benjamin Netanyahu was set to deliver a speech Wednesday outside a contested holy site known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque.

In his first visit to the city since 1998, Netanyahu is attending a memorial ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of a massacre of Hebron's Jewish community.

The Oslo peace accords of the 1990s divided the flashpoint city between Israeli and Palestinian zones of control. Hundreds of Israeli settlers live amid tens of thousands of Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority voiced its outcry over Netanyahu's visit.