Netanyahu to attend crisis meeting in Amman

Israel’s prime minister confirmed on Thursday that he would attend talks in Amman with Jordan's King Abdullah and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry aimed at calming a wave of violence gripping Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement came just hours after Kerry met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan, who will be excluded from the trilateral talks.

"According to the royal court, we understand that this meeting is going to happen shortly and that in this meeting the three leaders will discuss ways to return calm in Jerusalem," Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh reported from Amman.

"They will also talk about the possibility of re-launching negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians."

She said it was highly significant that the U.S. was mediating the talks, because it showed how tense the relations between Jordan and Israel had become in recent months.

The two countries have a peace treaty and, until now, their leaders were meeting regularly without the need for outside involvement.

Simmering unrest in Israeli occupied East Jerusalem has in recent days spread to the West Bank and Palestinian communities across Israel, raising fears of a new Palestinian uprising.

The meeting between Abbas and Kerry, who arrived in Jordan late on Wednesday, came a day after Israel approved plans to build an additional 200 settler homes in East Jerusalem, a move sharply criticized by the U.S.

Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, and have served as an obstacle to reaching a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.

Kerry and Abbas embraced and had a brief, whispered exchange as they met at the Palestinian leader's hillside home in Amman.

Tensions have been high in Jerusalem in recent weeks after a spate violent incidents which have left several Israelis and Palestinians dead. The tit-for-tat episodes of violence come as battles over Jerusalem's most holy site in the Old City have become increasingly contentious.

Visits by Jewish worshippers to the site — known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary — have raised concern among Palestinians that Israel is trying to take over the site. This, in turn, has fanned strife in a region already on edge following the collapse of U.S.-led peace talks, Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip last summer and the new Israeli settlement construction plans.

Earlier on Thursday, a tense confrontation erupted in Jerusalem’s Issawiya neighborhood as about 100 residents, including schoolchildren, tried to block a main road after police closed off several neighborhood entrances with concrete blocks.

Al Jazeera and wire services