Israeli and Palestinian leaders were working frantically to restore calm to Jerusalem and the West Bank last night after a day of violence that saw five Palestinians killed by Israeli troops on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, an Israeli soldier shot dead by a purported Palestinian comrade on a security patrol, and clashes in East Jerusalem and several West Bank flashpoints.
Typically, each side blamed the other for sparking the violence. For the Palestinians, the escalation in tension was a direct consequence of Israeli opposition leader Mr Ariel Sharon's "provocative" visit to the disputed Temple Mount on Thursday, a walkabout interpreted by Palestinians as a demonstration of unwillingness to compromise over the status of the mount, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims.
For the Israelis, the violence was the result of Muslim clergymen inciting thousands of Palestinians at the Temple Mount mosques during Friday prayers, so that a mob throwing stones and bottles converged on Israeli troops and forced them to respond with tear-gas, rubber bullets and some live rounds.
As night fell and Israeli police allowed worshippers back to the Wall for Jewish New Year's Eve prayers, Palestinian officials reported that five people had been killed on the Temple Mount - known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, the Harem al- Sharif - and that up to 200 more had been injured.
Israel reported 29 soldiers and policemen hurt, including four seriously injured. Jerusalem's police chief, Mr Yair Yitzhaki, was struck on the head by a rock, fainted, and was hospitalised.
The clashes spread to parts of East Jerusalem, where Palestinians set cars alight and stoned an ambulance and a tour bus, injuring five, and to numerous flashpoints in the West Bank. During the afternoon, the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat telephoned Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and said he was working to reduce the tension.
Mr Arafat also contacted the Clinton administration and reportedly sought intervention to prevent further Israeli "troublemaking". He sent his West Bank security chief, Mr Jibril Rajoub, to Temple Mount, to oversee the evacuation of thousands of worshippers.
Earlier in the day, Palestine Radio had been calling on listeners to go to the Temple Mount, where it said that Al-Aqsa mosque - Islam's third holiest site - was under attack.
In radio and TV interviews, Mr Barak said that the violence was "unacceptable," and that Mr Arafat had to choose between peace and conflict.
The day had begun with violence too - the apparently unprovoked killing of an Israeli soldier by a Palestinian policeman during a joint patrol through the West Bank's Kalkilya area.
The two teams of security forces were on a break when one of the Palestinians shouted "God is great" and opened fire on the Israelis, killing one soldier.
The gunman fled into Kalkilya, and turned himself in to his Palestinian superiors.