US President Donald Trump has said in a video message shown in Jerusalem that for many years there was a failure to acknowledge that the city was Israel's capital.
His daughter, Ivanka, unveiled a plaque on location before her husband, Jared Kushner, said in a speech that by moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem the US had shown that it could be trusted and that it would do what was right.
The opening of the embassy marked the fulfillment of a campaign promise by President Trump, who did not attend the ceremony. "May there be peace," he said in video remarks played for the audience.
But the day was marked by violence and bloodshed, as tens of thousands of Palestinians protested the embassy opening and Israeli army forces killed more than 50 protesters, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It said the dead include six children under age 18 and one paramedic. More than 1,200 were hurt in gunfire. The numbers of dead and injured continued to rise on Monday, and protests are expected to continue into Tuesday.