Israel has reopened access to and from the occupied West Bank despite the ongoing threat of unrest between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in East Jerusalem.
Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, ordered the lockdown to be lifted on Wednesday, five days after imposing the closure, citing security reasons.
Officials also reopened the al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem, where dozens of people were injured on Tuesday as Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Israeli security forces.
"Access to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is now free for both Muslim worshippers and tourists," Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, said, using the Jewish name for the site.
It had been closed to Muslim men under the age of 50 and all non-Muslims.
Despite the apparent relaxation of controls, Rosenfeld said about 3,000 police remained stationed across East Jerusalem and nearby villages to keep up the state of alert, the AFP news agency reported.
'Day of Rage'
Palestinian groups had called for a "day of rage" on Tuesday to protest against the reopening of the Hurva synagogue, considered by some to be one of Judaism's most sacred sites.
The synagogue is located in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem's Old City.
The walled Old City was annexed by Israel after the 1967 Middle East war, but is viewed by the Palestinians as a key part of any future independent state.
An Israeli government decision to include two West Bank religious sites in a Jewish national heritage plan had already raised tensions and the announcement of Israeli plans for new settler homesnear East Jerusalem further contributed to the volatile situation.
"This anger on the Palestinian street is all about control," Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from East Jerusalem, said.
"They feel increasing frustration at the fact that Israel can ease, and lift, and put on more restrictions as they please, which is a hallmark of this occupation.
"So, whether we're talking about restrictions on their holy sites, restrictions on where they can move, its all part of the same thing - frustration over Israel's control over the Palestinian people and their territory."
Ahmad Yousuf, a senior Hamas official and former adviser to Ismail Haniya, the deposed Palestinian prime minister, called on Tuesday for a non-violent intifada, or uprising, to protest what he called "Israeli provocations".
"We are not talking about violence. We are talking about people's right to defend themselves," he told Al Jazeera.
"When the Israelis are committing all these crimes against Muslim's holy shrines, the people [are] called to go defend themselves, to defend their holy shrines.
"This can escalate, there will be more bloody clashes if the world community doesn't do anything to stop this craziness."
Khaled Meshaal, Hamas' political chief who is exiled in Syria, has also urged Palestinians to protest, though he stopped short of calling for an intifada in remarks on the demonstrations.
He said Palestinians in Jerusalem should "take serious measures to protect al-Aqsa mosque from destruction and Judaisation".
Settlement dispute
The unrest comes ahead of a meeting of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet, which includes the US, Russia, the EU and the UN, in Moscow on Thursday.
The lead-up to the meeting has been overshadowed by tensions between the US and Israel over the East Jerusalem settlement announcement, made during a visit by Joe Biden, the US vice-president.
However, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has brushed aside suggestions that US relations with Israel are in crisisover the settlement announcement, softening the angry rhetoric of previous days.
"We have an absolute commitment to Israel's security. We have a close, unshakeable bond between the United States and Israel," she said in Washington on Tuesday.
She also said that Israel must prove it is committed to the peace process with actions, and she called for a gesture to the Palestinians from Israel.
But Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, did not mention the issue of settlements in his response to Clinton on Wednesday.
He instead blamed Palestinians for de-railing progress towards peace talks.
"In the past year, the government of Israel has proven its commitment to peace in both word and deed," he said in a statement.
"By contrast, the Palestinians have raised preconditions for the resumption of the diplomatic process, such as they have not done in the past 16 years."
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