The Latest: Palestinian envoy calls for civilian protection
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - The latest developments in ongoing violence between Palestinians and Israelis (all times local):
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10:15 p.m.
The Palestinian U.N. ambassador is urging the Security Council to immediately provide international protection for the Palestinian people.
Riyad Mansour told an emergency council meeting Friday called by Arab states that the issue of protection "has become more urgent than any time before" because of what he described as Israeli aggression "against our defenseless Palestinian people."
He warned that the escalating violence "threatens that the conflict will become a religious one that will destroy everything."
Mansour called on the council to implement a 1994 resolution adopted after a Jewish settler killed 29 Muslim worshippers at a holy site in Hebron.
It called on Israel "to guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilians throughout the occupied territory" including by "a temporary international or foreign presence."
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9:00 p.m.
A senior U.N. official blames Israel's long occupation of Palestinian territory and diminishing prospects for achieving a Palestinian state for transforming "long-simmering Palestinian anger into outright rage."
Taye-Brook Zerihoun, the assistant secretary-general for political affairs, told an emergency Security Council meeting on Friday that this "stark reality" has been compounded by increasingly dire economic conditions, including bleak employment prospects for Palestinian youths, and expanding Israeli settlement activities.
Zerihoun warned Israel that the current crisis cannot be resolved by security measures alone.
He said tensions at holy sites in Jerusalem, exacerbated by "reckless statements" from Palestinian and Israeli extremist elements, were the main instigator of the violence.
He also blamed "the apparent heavy-handed approach by Israeli security services" and "the impact of social media" for the escalation.
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8:00 p.m.
Israel's new U.N. ambassador is urging the Security Council to break its silence and make a statement against "the incitement that fuels terror" and support direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Danny Danon accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of leading "the dangerous incitement" with his "hate-filled speech" and claims that Israel is trying to change the status quo at Jerusalem's holiest site, which has been at the root of recent tensions.
Danon repeated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's commitment not to change the status quo at the site, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, home to the biblical Jewish Temples. Today it houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site.
Danon told reporters before an emergency council meeting on Friday that "Israel will not agree to any international presence on the Temple Mount." He said "any such intervention would violate the decades-long status quo."
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3:40 p.m.
Israeli troops fired tear gas and live rounds as hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza approached a crossing into Israel, some throwing stones at the gate.
Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra says one Palestinian was killed and two were wounded by the Israeli fire on Friday. A reporter for Palestine TV said a cameraman working for the channel was shot in the leg during the protest.
The Israeli military said it was checking the report of the clash.
Protests have erupted repeatedly along the Israel-Gaza border in recent weeks, as part of the upswing in violence during this period.
Israel and Egypt have enforced a border blockade on Gaza, with varying degrees of severity, since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized the territory in 2007.
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2:25 p.m.
A Palestinian man wearing a T-shirt with the word "press" written on it in large letters has stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier. The army says the attacker was shot and killed by other soldiers.
The attack took place just a few meters from a Palestinian protest after Muslim noon prayers in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The Israeli military said that the assailant, who had "disguised himself as a news photographer," attacked the soldier and wounded him. The soldier was evacuated for emergency medical care.
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9:30 a.m.
Dozens of Palestinians have thrown firebombs at a West Bank site revered by some Jews as the tomb of biblical patriarch Joseph.
Palestinian security forces extinguished the blaze early Friday. Footage on local media shows flames leaping from the small stone structure in the West Bank city of Nablus.
The tomb has become a popular prayer site in recent years among some religious Jews.
The arson comes at a time of heightened tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.
Over the past month, eight Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks, most of them stabbings. In that time, 31 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including 14 labeled by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops.