Palestinian car attack kills Jewish policeman

A Palestinian driver has rammed a car into several pedestrians in Jerusalem, killing a policeman, hours after clashes at the city's holiest site, BBC reported.

Officials say 13 people were injured. The driver was shot dead by police.

Hamas militants said they carried out the attack. Israel's prime minister said it was a result of "incitement" by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

A similar car attack by a Palestinian took place in the same area two weeks ago which left a woman and a baby dead.

In a separate development later on Wednesday, a Palestinian motorist drove into a group of soldiers in the southern West Bank, injuring three of them. The incident happened near a Palestinian refugee camp, Israeli police said.

Meanwhile Jordan has recalled its ambassador to Israel over what it called the "unprecedented Israeli escalation" at holy and sensitive sites in Jerusalem.

As tensions have risen in the city, access to the Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif compound has been intermittently restricted, with police at times barring male Muslim worshippers under the age of 50 from entering the site as a security measure.

The compound is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif. It contains the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

Jordan also cited continued building of settlements by Israel in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, and is to lodge a formal complaint to the UN Security Council in protest, reports say.

The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Bakudaily.Az