Palestinian president asks Israel to keep ‘extremists’ away from al-Aqsa mosque amid rise in violence

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has accused Israel of igniting a “religious war” by allowing rightwing Jewish religious activists to visit a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem.

His remarks – made during a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat – came amid continuing clashes in Israel and the West Bank during which Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian demonstrator near the city of Hebron.

Abbas’s comments mark the latest salvo in the war of words between senior Israeli political figures and Palestinians who blame each other for provoking the recent violence.

The clashes of the past three weeks – which have included four deadly attacks and an attempted assassination – have been exacerbated by tension over Israeli-controlled access to Jerusalem’s holiest place, revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and site of the al-Aqsa mosque, and by Jews as the mount where ancient Jewish temples once stood.

Under a longstanding arrangement, Jews are allowed to visit during certain hours but not to pray at the site – an arrangement high-profile activists, including some MPs in the Israeli parliament, would like to change.

Abbas’s remarks came as Israel tightened security nationwide after a 20-year-old soldier and a 26-year-old woman were killed on Monday in separate knife attacks by Palestinians in Tel Aviv and in the occupied West Bank.

“We ask you [Israel] to keep settlers and extremists far away from al-Aqsa mosque and our holy places,” Abbas said on Tuesday, following recent visits to the site by far-right Israeli MPs. “Keep them away from us and we’ll stay away from them.”

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, convened his security cabinet to consider how to deal with the escalating tensions.

The Israeli military said soldiers had killed a 21-year-old Palestinian man at a refugee camp after coming under attack by a crowd hurling petrol bombs and stones. Residents said he was on his roof, away from the clashes, when he was shot.

Confrontations also erupted in at least two other West Bank areas, where the army said soldiers had shot and wounded two Palestinians.

The violence has raised Israeli concern that a new uprising is brewing.

“We’re not seeing masses pouring into the street. We’re seeing, in certain places, young people using grassroots terrorism and lone attackers,” Israel’s defence minister, Moshe Yaalon, told reporters. “What do we call it? Let’s wait and see how it develops. It’s clear there is an escalation.”

The last Palestinian uprising brought a surge in suicide bombings in Israel and crushing military operations in Palestinian cities.

Last week, a Palestinian rammed his car into pedestrians in central Jerusalem, the second such incident in as many weeks.