Israeli forces sealed off the West Bank and massed riot squads around Occupied Jerusalem's Old City and Arab neighborhoods during Friday prayers, facing down Palestinian anger over Jewish settlement expansion. Four Palestinians were detained on suspicion of throwing stones and two officers were slightly injured in Occupied Jerusalem, a police spokesman said. Reuters journalists saw one protester treated by medics. Israel barred Palestinians from crossing from the West Bank into Israel and Occupied Jerusalem, and barred men under 50 from Al-Aqsa mosque. As hundreds of youths streamed away from noon prayers at a mosque in the district of Ras Al-Amud, a Reuters journalist saw men hurl stones at a car. One rock smashed a side window, but there were no obvious injuries. After a week in which visiting US Vice President Joe Biden condemned Israel for approving new building just as Washington was pushing its key Mideast ally to relaunch peace talks with the Palestinians, police said a plan to avert a repeat of clashes in which dozens were wounded last Friday had worked. Palestinians in Gaza Strip rallied to protest at Israel's policies in Occupied Jerusalem: “We will redeem Al-Aqsa mosque with our souls and our blood,” the crowd chanted. As demonstrators burned US and Israeli flags, Khalil Al-Hayya, a leader of the Hamas movement, urged Hamas's rival, West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to reverse his decision to engage in “proximity talks” with Israel. “These direct and indirect negotiations provide a cover to the Zionist aggression against our people and our lands,” Hayya told the crowd. “Our angry people now are calling on the Palestinian negotiator to back off from these negotiations which encourage more settlements and the Judaization of Jerusalem.” Before he left Israel Thursday, Biden made clear he did not want Abbas to hold back from talks. These have been cast in doubt by calls from Palestinian officials and the Arab League for Israel to reverse its latest settlement expansion before talks start. The US State Department said it was not aware of any refusal to hold indirect talks when President Obama's envoy George Mitchell returns to Jerusalem next week.
