Violence erupts outside Al-Aqsa Mosque

Police, who hurled several stun grenades as they moved into the area known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), pulled away from the shrine about an hour later after calm was restored.

Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said Palestinians had thrown stones at groups of Jews visiting the compound on "Jerusalem Day," which marks Israel's takeover of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.

Two Jews were slightly injured and one Palestinian was arrested, he added.

Israel Radio said local Muslim religious authorities had appealed to several hundred chanting Palestinians who faced off against police and waved green Islamic flags outside Al-Aqsa Mosque to avoid violence.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, commenting on the incident, told reporters in the West Bank that visits by right-wing Jews to the holy site, one of the most politically sensitive in Jerusalem, could have "dire circumstances."