Israeli forces control the site in Jerusalem and Jordan is its religious custodian but the site has religious significance to Jews and Muslims.
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The latest wave of violence erupted over the status of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a site sacred to both Jews and Muslims that has always been a crucible for tensions fuelling the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby told a daily briefing, “If it was true it would certainly be of concern to us”.
There has been a mosque on the site “since the creation of the world”, Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, who is in charge of the holy Muslim Al-Aksa Mosque, said Sunday evening in an interview in Arabic with Israel’s Channel 2.
But Mr. Netanyahu reaffirmed on Sunday that his government wasn’t changing the rules around access to the site.
The current wave of Palestinian violence against Israelis has stemmed from assertions by Arab leaders that Israel is changing the status quo on the Temple Mount under which non-Muslim prayer is banned at the site.
“Israel has an interest in placing cameras on all parts of the Temple Mount”, Netanyahu said in a statement Sunday, using the Jewish term for the compound in annexed east Jerusalem.
The death brings the amount of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in October to 58, while about 2,000 have been injured in similar incidents across West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza, according to WAFA.
The Palestinian man, identified by security sources as 20-year-old Azzam Azmi Shalalda from Sair, was reportedly shot four times and taken to al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron in critical condition.
Israeli police have shot a Palestinian woman in the West Bank city of Hebron, saying she drew a knife as she approached them shouting and refusing to identify herself.
The situation is especially dire in those areas outside the barrier, which suffer from overcrowding and lack of municipal services as Palestinians have fled a housing crunch in Arab neighborhoods inside the barrier. In the past five weeks, 10 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, while 51 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 30 said by Israel to be attackers and the rest in clashes.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to freeze hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian aid money in order to pressure Palestinian leaders into helping end the latest cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
This month, Israel introduced a number of restrictive security measures – including stepped-up police searches, checkpoints and roadblocks – throughout East Jerusalem. “This won’t do anything other than give Israel more control”.
One of those proposals would implement limited movement from Palestinian East Jerusalem to the predominantly Jewish western part.
The assailants fled after the Israeli responded with gunfire, the military said.
But Azzam Khatib, director of the Islamic authority that oversees Muslim affairs at the site, said Monday that Israeli police prevented work crews from installing cameras at the entrance to the compound.
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Hamas has called in recent weeks for a another uprising against Israel but has said it hasn’t used its own operatives to conduct attacks.
