Moscow concerned about escalation of violence in Palestinian territories, Israel

The causes, says Netanyahu’s former national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, are more prosaic: the rising tensions across the Middle East, assaults by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and statements by Israeli politicians calling for a change in the status quo for the elevated compound around the al-Aqsa Mosque. Numerous Palestinian attacks on Israelis are now occurring in the West Bank, rather than in Jerusalem where they started.

The number of days on which Israel has imposed age-based bans on entry to the mosque increased from three days in 2012 to 41 previous year, according to police figures cited in a report by Emek Shaveh, an Israeli group that studies archaeological sites in Jerusalem. It came as violence involving Palestinians and Israelis, typically stabbings by Palestinians and followed with shootings by Israeli security forces, became a daily occurrence.

The official says Netanyahu recently ordered the review of Jerusalem neighborhoods that lie outside of Israel’s West Bank separation barrier.

A 17-year old Palestinian girl was shot and killed on Sunday in Hebron in an alleged knife attack against an Israeli border police. The Israeli official said these neighborhoods suffer from “lawlessness”, and a “serious discussion” is needed. Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and its claim to all of the city as its capital are not recognised internationally.

“We need to examine the possibility of cancelling their residency”, Netanyahu said.

Later in the day, a Palestinian was killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank, Palestinians said.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida said in this regard that king of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and US Kerry, discussed – during a meeting held in Riyadh on Saturday – ways to calm tension between the Palestinian-Israeli sides, and the need to provide the Palestinian people with worldwide protection.

With efforts to defuse tensions already strained, deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely stoked Palestinian fears by saying it was her “dream to see the Israeli flag flying” over the holy site, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

Under decades-old arrangements, Jews are allowed to visit, but not to pray at the shrine.

With Palestinians accusing Israel of trying to seize administrative control of the site, and Israel claiming the mosque compound is being used by Palestinian youth to stage unruly protests, the installation of cameras was proposed this weekend as a means of verifying the conflicting allegations.

Netanyahu has welcomed the plan, saying the cameras will prove that Israel is not doing anything wrong at the site.

“We severely condemn the Israeli interference into the working affairs of the Waqf, and we consider the matter evidence that Israel wants to install cameras that only serve its own interests, not cameras that show truth and justice”, it said in a statement. “When a decision is made it will be implemented with coordination and approval of all the relevant parties”, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.