LIVE BLOG: Tensions mount in Jerusalem

Islamic Jihad have a released a video online in which they reportedly threaten to restart suicide bombings within Israel.

On Saturday, in an announcement, Islamic Jihad said that a third Intifada had begun due to Israeli transgressions on the Al-Aqsa compound.

"We are at the start of a true intifada," read the statement. "The situation is at the breaking point - this isn't a storm in a teacup. Today (Prime Minister Binyamin) Netanyahu is reaping what he sowed. The Palestinian people have spoken - harming Al-Aqsa is a red line."

Both right-wing and left-wing Israeli activists gathered to protest outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house on Sunday, calling for his resignation over the failure to provide security in East Jerusalem.

Uri Keidar, chairman of the Labor party’s youth movement, said that Netanyahu had failed to provide a "longterm solution" to the security problems in the city.

"The right explains to us why nothing works and nothing is their fault," he told the crowd. "A right wing government and what do we hear from them? Excuses. A long term solution should be found and if they can’t find it they should return the keys and go home.”

Yossi Dagan, head of the settlement body the Samaria Regional Council in the West Bank, had also been involved in a sit-in outside the Prime Minister’s Residence since Friday.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday gave a eulogy for Rabbi Nahemiah Lavie, killed by a Palestinian in the Old City of Jerusalem on Saturday.

"You died for the sake of your people and your country," he said. "Your children will not forget your heroism or your love. Even we the people of Israel will not forget."

"The struggle against terrorism requires determination - I urge worshipers to come set foot in the Old City and prove" to those who want to harm us "that they cannot harm our way of life."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday called for de-escalation in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and calm on both sides.

"Recalling the recent deadly attack on another Israeli family in the occupied West Bank, and in light of the wave of extremism and violence sweeping the region, the secretary-general is deeply concerned that these latest incidents signal a dangerous slide toward escalation," said a statement.

He "urges all leaders to condemn violence and incitement, maintain calm and to do everything they can to avoid further escalation" while adding he was "deeply troubled" by Hamas praise for the killing of Israelis.

Al Jazeera English apologised on its website for the wording of a tweet on Saturday which critics claimed minimised the deaths of two Israelis following a stabbing by a Palestinian:

"On Saturday, we posted a tweet that has been widely criticised.

"It contained a link to a news story on our site about an incident in Jerusalem in which two Israeli men were stabbed to death by a Palestinian man who was later shot dead by Israeli police. 

"The is the wording of the tweet: 

"'Palestinian shot dead after fatal stabbing in Jerusalem; 2 Israeli victims also killed.'

"Many people in our audience have pointed out that the tweet appears to minimise the killings of the Israeli victims and leaves out the context that the Palestinian man was their attacker.

"This criticism is valid and we regret the wording of a tweet written under the pressure of breaking news. The story on the site was briefly headlined with similar wording, which we amended in an update."

In exclusive footage for MEE, the family of Mohannad Shafik Halabi, a 19-year old Palestinian who was shot dead onb Saturday after stabbing two Ultra-Orthodox Jews in East Jerusalem, prepare for their house to be demolished by the Israeli security services:

AFP:

Clashes with Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers have left 77 Palestinians wounded from both live rounds and rubber bullets over the past 24 hours, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Sunday.

The toll included 18 wounded from live rounds and 59 from rubber bullets, Red Crescent spokeswoman Errab Foqaha said. 

Another 139 have been treated for tear gas inhalation and six for injuries sustained in beatings by soldiers or settlers, she said.

A series of clashes have broken out in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank with tensions high following two Palestinian attacks that killed two Israelis and wounded a child.

Nir Hasson, a correspondant for Haaretz, on Sunday condemned the "futility" of Israeli policy in Jerusalem:

"When asked what would have an impact on the terrorists’ motivation, security officials are in agreement that the issue of the status of the Temple Mount and the belief that Israel plans to change the status quo there are a decisive factor, as is demonstrated over and over on terrorists’ Facebook pages. Such a belief has no basis in fact. It would never occur to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change the status quo barring Jews from praying on the Temple Mount, but it still has deep roots in the worldview of the Palestinian public. Terrorists don’t need Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to tell them this from the rostrum of the UN General Assembly. All they need is to see pictures of Israeli police on the mount (even though the Muslim religious trust, the Waqf, has day-to-day administrative control of the Temple Mount).

"So what can be done? In another universe, even less than an ideal one, with another Israeli government, it would have been possible to propose far-reaching suggestions; for example, permitting a symbolic Arab presence (in uniform, for instance) on the mount to prove Israel’s seriousness in maintaining the status quo. In a slightly better universe, it would have been possible to suggest a return to peace talks and even send a message to young Palestinians that there is a different diplomatic horizon. In our world, however, it seems we will have to make do with another emergency meeting of cabinet ministers and more police on Hagai Street."
 

Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party, has called for Palestinian 'terrorist' to receive the death penalty and for money transfers with the PAlestinian Authority to be halted.

"PA president Mahmoud Abbas is not a partner for peace," he wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.

He also called for the banning of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement and encouraged the creation of safe bypass roads for people travelling through the West Bank.

The Palestinian authority denounced "Israeli escalation" on Sunday after Israel temporarily banned Palestinians from entering Jerusalem's Old City following attacks that killed two people and wounded a child.

“The Palestinian government denounces the Israeli escalation policy by Israeli occupation authorities against our people in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank," it said in a statement after the imposition of the two-day ban.

On Saturday night, a Palestinian said to be an Islamist militant killed two Israeli men and wounded a woman and a toddler in a knife and gun attack in the Old City. Police shot dead the attacker.

In a separate incident early Sunday, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded a passerby in west Jerusalem before being shot dead by police while fleeing.