Israeli police briefly clashed with Palestinian protesters at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site early yesterday, raising tensions in the holy city ahead of the Jewish new year.

Riot police and Muslim worshippers clashed during a protest in one of Jerusalem’s sacred areas today.

Israeli security forces tripled their usual numbers around Jerusalem’s Old City this morning as the city braced for possible riots during Muslim prayers at the Holy Land’s most contentious religious site.

The supreme leader of Iran has called on Islamic nations to retaliate against Israel over excavations being carried out near a hotly disputed holy site in Jerusalem.

An explosion ripped through a shack in the West Bank today, killing six Palestinian activists in Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement in one of the deadliest single episodes in 10 months of Mideast violence.