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Israeli-Palestinian clashes break out during 'Day of Rage'

Occupied Jerusalem - John Kerry said he was cautiously optimistic there was a way to defuse tensions after holding four hours of talks with Benjamin Netanyahu.

Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers broke out in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Friday during "Day of Rage" protests while diplomats tried to end more than three weeks of bloodshed.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said he was cautiously optimistic there was a way to defuse tensions after holding four hours of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin on Thursday.
Israeli authorities also lifted restrictions on Friday that had banned men aged under 40 from using the flashpoint Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City - a move seen as a bid to ease Muslim anger.
Police said on Friday prayers there ended quietly. But in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said 24 people were wounded by live fire, including a 13-year-old critically injured near Ramallah and three photographers wounded near the Gaza border.
The Israeli military said it was unaware that journalists had been hurt and that soldiers had fired warning shots in the air before firing on leading instigators trying to breach the security fence.
Earlier, a 16-year-old Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier in the West Bank, before being shot and wounded by other troops, the Israeli military said.
One of the worst waves of street violence in years was triggered in part by Palestinian anger over what they see as Jewish encroachment on the compound.
Palestinians are also frustrated by the failure of peace talks they hope will secure them an independent state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Fifty Palestinians, half of them assailants, have been shot dead by Israelis at the scene of attacks or during protests in the West Bank and Gaza since October 1. Nine Israelis have been stabbed or shot dead by Palestinians.
Stabbings and shootings mostly have been carried out by "lone wolf" attackers, many of them teenagers.
Palestinian factions, including the militant group Hamas and the Fatah movement of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, had called for Day of Rage rallies after Friday prayers, though protests were less intense than in previous weeks.
"By the blood of their sons, Jerusalem and the West Bank will write the end of the occupation," said Ismail Rudwan, an official from Hamas, which controls Gaza.
The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators, comprising the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, were due to meet in Vienna on Friday to urge Israeli and Palestinian leaders to tone down their rhetoric and calm tensions.
Kerry was expected to meet in Amman on Saturday with Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II, who has a role as a custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.
One of Kerry's goals is to reinforce the status quo at Al Aqsa, which has long banned non-Muslim prayer at the site. Netanyahu says Israel has not changed the status quo and has no intention of doing so.
STATUS QUO
An Israeli government source said Netanyahu told Kerry in their meeting that, to curb violence, Abbas and King Abdullah should publicly declare the status quo had not changed.
A spokesman for Netanyahu would not confirm the prime minister had made such a demand.
Palestinians are also angry at what they see as excessive use of force by Israeli police and soldiers, with many attackers shot dead at the scene when they might have been detained.
One Israeli was killed by soldiers who mistook him for an attacker, and an Eritrean migrant was beaten and shot dead by a crowd of Israelis who thought he had taken part in a shooting.