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 In the latest incident, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded a Jewish
seminary student on a main road in Jerusalem on Thursday and the
assailant was arrested at the scene, police said.
Four Israelis have been killed in stabbings in Jerusalem and a
drive-by shooting in the occupied West Bank in the past week, and
two Palestinians have been shot dead and scores injured in clashes
with security services, triggering fears of escalation.
After a right-wing outcry, Netanyahu's office clarified that the ban
on politicians' visits to al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's
walled Old City would also include Arab parliamentarians. It said in
a statement that the move was aimed at "cooling things down around
the Temple Mount".
 Palestinians fear visits by Jewish groups, including
ultranationalist lawmakers, to the plaza revered in Judaism as the
site of two destroyed biblical temples are eroding Muslim religious
control of al-Aqsa, Islam's third holiest shrine.
As prime minister, Netanyahu has the authority to order police to
halt the visits on security grounds, and his office said the ban was
open-ended. In recent weeks, clashes have erupted at the holy site
between Palestinian rock-throwers and Israeli police.
Israeli government officials have accused Palestinian leaders of
playing on Muslim concerns over al-Aqsa to incite Palestinians to
violence - so far mostly "lone-wolf" attacks that appear to fall
short of an organized uprising.
But Israeli military officials have noted that security cooperation
with the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in
the occupied West Bank, is continuing. Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas has said publicly he wants to avoid armed confrontation with
Israel.
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In an interview with Israeli Army Radio on Thursday, U.S. deputy
national security adviser Ben Rhodes urged both sides, which have
not held peace talks since 2014, to pull away from violence.
"What we have done is encourage all the different parties ... to
find a way to prevent any further escalation and hopefully have a
restoration of calm," Rhodes said.
On Wednesday, Palestinians stabbed and wounded three Israelis in
attacks in occupied East Jerusalem, in a town in southern Israel and
in a city near Tel Aviv.
One of the assailants was shot and wounded by the man she injured,
another was killed by police and a third was arrested unharmed,
security officials said.
Israeli troops also clashed with Palestinians in the West Bank on
Wednesday. The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service said 288
Palestinians were injured, including 10 by live fire.
(Editing by Tom Heneghan)
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