Israeli soldiers exchanged sporadic gunfire with Palestinians early Friday as tension in the Middle East remained high ahead a funeral for a Palestinian man, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who held talks during the night with his military chiefs, called a meeting of key ministers Friday morning in Tel Aviv to discuss security matters, an official source told AFP.
In Jerusalem, Israeli police flooded the Old City ahead of Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, where the Palestinian uprising began on September 28.
As thousands of Arabs began arriving for prayers, police prevented youths from gaining access to the complex, the third most sacred site in Islam, sparking angry verbal exchanges.
Police earlier announced only people over 40 years old would be allowed access to the compound, claiming they had information that youths planned to provoke "incidents" after prayers.
Tension was also high in the flashpoint West Bank town of Nablus, where the two victims of Thursday's clash were to be buried.
Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of the town ahead of the burial of 34-year-old Zahi al-Ardah, who was killed when, according to witnesses, a group of Palestinians in the village of Askar, near Nablus, came under fire from Jewish settlers hiking in a nearby hill.
Nablus was awash with Palestinian flags Friday morning as the procession wound through the streets from al-Ardah's house to the mosque, many in the crowd firing into the air, burning Israeli flags and chanting, "Death to the Jews."
The Israeli settler who was killed when the Palestinians returned fire was to be buried in the nearby Jewish settlement of Kedumim Friday.
An Israeli army spokesman said there had been clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians overnight and early Friday in the Gaza Strip, mainly near Rafah in the south and near the Jewish settlement at Kfar Darom.
Clashes also occurred in the West Bank -- near the Jewish settlement at Psagot, near Ramallah, and near Hebron - JERUSALEM (AFP)
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