LIVE BLOG: Jerusalem on the brink

Clashes are continuing in East Jerusalem, according to social media reports.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday that US Secretary of State John Kerry will Monday meet in Washington with the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erakat, for talks on the peace process.

Kerry will welcome a Palestinian delegation for discussions on "the way forward" in the stalled peace process and the situation in Gaza.

Demonstations over the closure of the al-Aqsa compound have reached as far as the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria.

Yarmouk camp has been under heavy siege from the Assad government since rebel forces entered the camp in 2013.

Right-wing Israelis have launched a campaign against Israeli President Reuven Rivlin over his reconciliatory gestures towards the Arab/Palestinian community in Israel.

The Jerusalem Post quoted Facebook users savaging Rivlin with comments like “thanks to the Arab fascists who elected you,” and “this bastard is condemning Jews who moved into homes in Jerusalem. It reminds me a bit of the race laws, but when it comes to Jews, everything goes.”

At the beginning of the parliamentary winter session in the Knesset, Rivlin described some of the slurs used against him

“I’ve been called a ‘lying kike’ by my critics,” Rivlin said.

“’May you die, Arab agents,’ ‘Go be president in Gaza,’ ‘Smelly Arab sycophant,’ ‘traitor,’ ‘the president of Hezbollah’.”

Social media also circulated a photo of the President wearing the Arab keffiyeh:

Rivlin, a former Likud MK, had come under attack from the Israeli right-wing for his acknowledgement of the 1956 Kafr Qasem massacre in 47 Palestinians were killed by Israeli border police.

The initial autopsy report of Mu'taz Hijazi shows that he was shot all over the body at least 20 times and that his death was caused by severe bleeding from his chest, neck, hands, legs, lungs, and heart, according to the Ma'an news agency.

Muhammad Mahmoud, a lawyer for the Addameer Palestinian prisoners' rights group, was quoted in the news agency saying that "bullets struck Hijazi in the chest area, including heart and lungs, six hit his neck area, one hit his shoulder, one hit the right thigh, two hit his right arm, one hit his pelvis, three hit his right leg and four hit his left leg."

Israeli police have detained a Palestinian man in the al-Sawahra al-Sharqiya neighbourhood of East Jerusalem after they found weapons in his home.

Israeli news site Wallah have reported that two Ak-47s and a pistol were found in the man's house during the raid.

The man, who has remained unidentified, was taken to a police station in the Maale Adumim settlement after the discovery.

There were reports an hour ago of clashes that broke out in Thawri, the district where Mu'taz Hijazi was killed yesterday morning.

Now, Palestine Information Centre reports that the mourning tent for Hijazi has been hit with tear gas.

Dozens of people are suffering the effects of tear gas inhalation.

Another four people have been injured during ongoing clashes at the Qalandiya checkpoint, reports local television station Palestine Today.

Two of the injured were children, according to the site.

ActiveStills, a photography collective on the ground in Qalandiya, reports that Israeli forces were using live ammunition. There had earlier been news that the troops were using rubber-coated metal bullets.

+972 has a story today on the history of the movement to allow Jews to pray at the al-Aqsa compound, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount.

Aviv Tatarsky, who has been closely following the activity of the Temple Mount societies for Ir Amim, told MEE that while the movement has been gaining support among a certain segment of Israeli society, to a large extent they still remain on the fringes.

“For many decades they were considered very fringe … in the last five years they have begun getting funding from government ministries like the Education Ministry and have managed to change the way they are presenting what they are doing," he said.

Tatarksy says that in the past year, the societies have stopped speaking about building a third temple and instead focused on Jewish rights to pray there, a strategy he says has been successful in garnering mainstream support within the national religious sector.

But the researcher, who spoke at the event where the attempt was made on Glick’s life on Wednesday night, noted that there were only “maximum 70 participants at a major conference” for the movement.

“There’s a gap between how important it is to the people supporting them, such as MK Moshe Feiglin and [Minister of Housing Uri Ariel]… including the fact that they have backing in the coalition and have managed to impose on the police to change their policies regarding the Temple Mount [and mainstream opinion]. This is quite dangerous and doesn’t fit in with what the vast majority of the Israeli public wants.”

Local news site Zamn Press reports that clashes have broken in out in Thawri, the Jerusalem district where Mu'taz Hijazi was shot and killed on Thursday morning. 

Israeli forces used sound bombs and tear gas to break up the clashes.

Yesterday, reporter Dan Cohen reported being forced off the suburban rooftop of Hijazi's home by clouds of tear gas, as confrontations broke out after the shooting.

MEE contributors in Qalandia, located between Jerusalem and Ramallah, are reporting that eight Palestinians have been wounded in clashes with Israeli soldiers within the past few hours.