Israeli troops killed an armed Palestinian who was trying to attack a settlement in the Gaza Strip, and shot dead a second Palestinian in a manhunt near the Israeli town of Ramle. But yesterday's main potential flashpoint - the gathering of an estimated 100,000 Muslim worshippers for prayers at Jerusalem's Temple Mount on the first Friday of the holy month of Ramadan - passed without major incident.
Friday prayers during Ramadan have often given rise to violent clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli security forces. Israeli police had some 2,000 personnel on duty here yesterday; the Jerusalem police chief, Mr Mickey Levy, said anybody carrying an Israeli residency card had been allowed to enter the Temple Mount compound.
Palestinian officials complained, however, that West Bank residents with such ID cards had been turned back at Israeli road-blocks, and noted that all other West Bank Palestinians had been prevented from reaching the holy sites. Israeli officials said restrictions stemmed from security concerns. The Haram area itself is administered by a Muslim trust, but Israel maintains security control at the entrances, having claimed sovereignty throughout the Old City and East Jerusalem since 1967.
In violence in Gaza, Israeli troops shot dead one armed Palestinian in a group of three who attempted a pre-dawn raid on the Nisanit settlement. Palestinians also fired mortars at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel. Israeli police killed another Palestinian near Ramle, outside Tel Aviv, and arrested three others who, it was alleged, had entered Israel illegally and may have been planning an attack.
Meanwhile, the left-wing Knesset member, Mr Ran Cohen, has asked the Defence Ministry to order an investigation into the death of Khalil Mughrabi, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy killed by Israeli gunfire in Gaza in July.
Earlier this week the Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, protested at the army's decision not to prosecute soldiers involved, even though internal documents showed the fatal shots had been fired in breach of all regulations. Mughrabi was killed when hit in the head by heavy machinegun fire as he rested on a mound of sand after a soccer game.
B'Tselem was apparently sent army documents in error in which the chief military prosecutor confirmed the boy was killed even though he had been "innocently playing football."