Palestinians, Israelis clash ahead of talks

Dozens of people were injured in clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank yesterday, as tension over land and holy sites mounted ahead of a re-launch of US-mediated peace negotiations.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of trying to wreck peace efforts and of risking a "war of religion" across the Middle East by police "provocation" at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest spot in Islam, which stands on ground also revered by Jews as the site of their biblical Temple.

Two days before US President Barack Obama's envoy George Mitchell visits Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a leader of Mr Abbas's own party said it may not support the move to return to negotiations - pressure that could delay the start of a planned four months of "proximity talks" via US mediators.

Israel blamed Mr Abbas's Islamist rivals Hamas, rulers of the Gaza Strip, for some of the trouble yesterday. There were also exchanges of tear gas and rocks in Hebron, around the West Bank shrine to Abraham that is also sacred to both Jews and Muslims.

In violence during weekly protests against walls and fences Israel is building in and around the West Bank to keep Arabs out of Israel and Jewish settlements on occupied land, a 14-year-old Palestinian youth was hit in the head and badly wounded by a rubber bullet, protesters and Palestinian medics said.

A Reuters journalist at the al-Aqsa mosque compound, which also houses the landmark, gilded Dome of the Rock and is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, said violence began after weekly prayers when youths holding a protest against Israel threw rocks at police who had entered the walled area. Police responded with stun grenades and said they arrested five people in the clashes.