Kerry said he has already spoken with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his trip to Europe and the Middle East this week, and said he believes “people want this to de-escalate”.
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At the center of the crisis is a long-running dispute over Israel’s management of a holy site, known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, and the country’s recent efforts to limit access to the area by young men who it says are instigating violence.
The Al-Aqsa mosque compound is one of the key sources of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, as it is both the third-holiest site for Muslims and the holiest site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount.
“It is absolutely critical to end all incitement, to end all violence and to find a road forward to build the possibility which is not there today for a larger process”, he said.
Muslim prayers at the site ended peacefully on Friday.
Welcome to the latest round of talks aimed at resolving Israeli-Palestinian violence.
On Friday, Palestinians threw a firebomb at a passing Israeli auto, wounding a woman and her two children in the West Bank, the Israeli military said.
Separately, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will meet Kerry and Netanyahu later Thursday in Berlin.
In the latest attack yesterday, a Palestinian stabbed and lightly wounded a soldier in the occupied West Bank and was shot and wounded by Israeli forces.
Friday’s lifting of age restrictions on Muslim worshippers appeared to be part of an Israeli attempt to ease tensions.
Mr Kerry met Mr Netanyahu in Berlin, where the Israeli leader is on an official visit.
“Every shahid [martyr] will be in heaven and every wounded person will be rewarded, by Allah’s will”, Abbas said. Ten Israelis have been killed in stabbing attacks, while 47 Palestinians or Arab citizens of Israel have been killed, including 26 identified by Israel as attackers. They include about 25 Palestinians labeled by Israel as attackers and others killed in clashes with the Israeli security forces.
“Our most urgent challenge is to stop the current wave of violence and avoid any further loss of life”, he added.
A Palestinian has been shot and killed after he and another Palestinian allegedly stabbed an Israeli at a bus stop west of Jerusalem.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (pix) told the Security Council on Wednesday that he was “not optimistic” following his talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, appealing for calm after three weeks of deadly unrest.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is holding meetings with the leaders of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians this week to try to contain the violence and tone down the angry rhetoric between the sides.
A few of the men implicated in recent attacks come from Jabel Mukaber, whose residents, like much of the world, do not recognize Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem, territory Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War and which Palestinians claim as the capital of any future state.
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He was taken to hospital, as was the surviving attacker. Under a decades-old agreement, Israel has maintained the status quo, an arrangement that allows Jews to visit the site but not to pray there.
