Bid to ease tensions over Al-Aqsa stumbles

Efforts to douse Israeli-Palestinian tensions over Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound ran into trouble yesterday when the Islamic trust which administers the holy site accused Israeli police of blocking the agreed installation of cameras.

Israel on Saturday agreed to install surveillance cameras at the highly-sensitive site after an intense diplomatic drive to calm spiralling violence that many fear heralds a new Palestinian intifada.

In the latest in a wave of knife attacks by Palestinians, a 19-year-old Israeli was stabbed in the neck and severely wounded while his attacker was shot dead, the army said.

Another Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli soldier and was shot in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, the army said, without giving details on the attacker's condition.

the Jordanian trust known as the Waqf which administers the compound said that when a team went to install the cameras yesterday morning, "Israeli police interfered directly and stopped the work."

"We severely condemn the Israeli interference into the working affairs of the Waqf, and we consider the matter evidence that Israel wants to install cameras that only serve its own interests, not cameras that show truth and justice," it said in a statement.