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Israeli minister stirs new tensions over Jerusalem holy site

Earlier at the Etzion junction just north of Hebron, two Palestinians attacked a soldier, one of them stabbing him in the face and moderately wounding him before forces shot the pair dead.

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A 76-year-old U.S.-Israeli citizen critically injured in a Jerusalem bus attack two weeks ago died Tuesday, hospital officials said.

The army would not elaborate on the condition of the Palestinian. Rosenfeld said the Israeli man was lightly wounded.

Israel has arrested more than 1,000 Palestinians and Arab Israelis since the October 1 surge in violence, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said late on Sunday.

The ongoing violence has been partly triggered by Palestinian anger over what they see as Jewish encroachment in Islam’s third-holiest site, the al-Aqsa compound, which is also revered by Jews.

Clashes erupted there in September as an increase in Jewish visitors to the site alarmed Palestinians, who fear Israel is seeking to change rules that forbid Jews from praying there. Russia is deeply concerned about the rising tensions and escalation of violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced over the weekend an agreement between Israel and Jordan to install security cameras at the hilltop compound that has been at the center of weeks of unrest.

Officials of the Islamic authority said that the Royal Court in Jordan instructed them to go ahead with the installation of cameras.

Netanyahu on Monday attended commemorations of the 20-year anniversary of the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, as the fresh wave of violence threw into stark relief the failure to resolve the decades-old conflict.

Writing for The Times of Israel, Elhanan Miller reports that not only Palestinian leaders, but also Jewish activists campaigning for the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount rejected the idea of constant video monitoring at the site. Numerous Palestinian attackers who have been involved in deadly assaults were from east Jerusalem neighborhoods.

Netanyahu has said that having cameras at the site would be in Israel’s interest.

Also any skirmishes in the region, which are not usually reported until Israel takes any action, are time and again started by unprovoked attacks on Jewish civilians by the likes of Hamas or in the past Hezbollah.

“Final arrangements for the manner and location of the cameras on the Temple Mount, which was agreed upon between Israel, Jordan and the United States, were meant to be coordinated by the professional elements”, it said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has moved to bring cabinet members into line after a deputy minister said she “dreamed” of seeing the Israeli flag flying over the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Israeli police had no immediate comment.

“When a decision is made it will be implemented with coordination and approval of all the relevant parties”, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

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“We’ve seen a lot of activity; all kinds of [archaeological] projects to escalate around the Haram and isolate it from the Muslims”, said Mizrahi.

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