LIVE: Palestinians and Israelis killed, scores injured in clashes over al-Aqsa

The person who allegedly stabbed and killed Israeli settlers on Friday night has been identified in news reports as Omar el-Abed, a 20-year-old Palestinian.

Following the attack, Abed sustained some injuries and was sent to Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva for treatment, according to a Haaretz report.

Prior to his alleged attack on the settlers, Abed posted a Facebook message saying "I am 20 years old and I have many dreams that I hope they will continue be true, I love life and I love making others happy. But there is no life after what we see at Aqsa mosque and how they kill young people and women".

Three Israelis were stabbed to death and a fourth was wounded in a knife attack in the Israeli West Bank settlement of Neve Tsuf on Friday, the Israeli army and media said.

The army said in a statement that the four victims were Israeli civilians and that the assailant was also shot. It was not known whether he was killed or wounded.

Israel Radio identified him as a 19-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank village of Khobar near Ramallah.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Friday he was freezing contacts with Israel over new security measures at Al-Aqsa, in the wake of deadly clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians.

Abbas said in a speech that the freeze would stay in place until Israel lifted the measures around the mosque compound, which Jews refer to as the Temple Mount.

Israeli riot police have fired tear gas and stormed the Al-Makassed hospital in East Jerusalem where injured Palestinian protesters were being treated in the hospital's intensive care unit. 

The hospital released a statement this morning urging international organisations to protect the medical facility after armed Israeli police entered the medical facility yesterday evening. 

According to MEE's Lubna Masarwa, Israeli forces had forced their way into the hospital and asked employees to leave the facility. Witnesses told MEE that the Israeli police had asked patients to leave the hospital and that they were looking for individuals wounded in the clashes. 

Palestinian news outlets report that a Palestinian teenager severely wounded in Friday's clashes died from his wounds in the Al-Makassed hospital in East Jerusalem. 

Mohammed Hassan Abu Ganem, 19, also died from his wounds inside the Al-Makassed hospital, which has been besieged by Israeli police since yesterday evening. 

Footage on social media shows his family members lifting Ganem's dead body, which was shrouded in white cloth, over the hospital wall, in a bid to stop the Israeli authorities from seizing the body. 

Latest updates from Lubna Masarwa who is on the ground in East Jerusalem:

• Mohammed Mahmoud Sharaf, aged 17, was killed by live bullets in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ras al-Amud.
• Mohammed Hassan Abu Ghannam, aged 19, has died from his wounds after he was shot by an Israeli settler in the town of Tur in East Jerusalem.
• More than 200 people were injured during clashes with Israeli police.  

Israeli police have denied Omar Shakir, who is Human Rights Watch's Israel and Palestine director, access to the Al-Makassad hospital in east Jerusalem. 

The medical facility was raided by Israeli riot police earlier today, as it tended to dozens of Palestinians injured in ongoing clashes. 

• 10 Palestinians in Jerusalem arrested
• 17 Palestinians arrested at Israeli army checkpoints across West Bank

(Source: Israeli Army)

Palestinian media outlets report that the third Palestinian confirmed dead by the Palestinian health ministry was shot dead in Abu Dis in East Jerusalem (via @alqudsn).

Despite ongoing clashes, Palestinians continue to hold prayer protests outside the Al-Aqsa compound in east Jerusalem after thousands were prevented from entering the mosque for Friday prayers. 

MEE's Lubna Masarwa reports that more than a dozen Palestinian youth refused to enter the Al-Aqsa compound after Israeli police temporarily opened the Al-Qattanin Street gate for 10 minutes to film people walking into the mosque.

Abu Obaidah, who refused to enter, told MEE: "They took off the metal detectors and then began filming us to show the world that the situation is normal.

"We then decided to not enter and told the police that we will enter only if the metal detectors and other security measures have been taken down."

Here is what has happened inside occupied East Jerusalem over the past 48 hours.

MEE's Lubna Masarwa has confirmed that rubber bullets were fired into a crowd of protestors who were praying near the Old City in East Jerusalem.

Snipers were also posted on the walls overlooking parts of the Old City.