Israel on Thursday promised Jordan that it would not allow Jews to pray at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound as scores of Jewish extremists tried to march to the flashpoint shrine.

With clashes raging in several Palestinian neighborhoods in annexed east Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with Jordan's King Abdullah II to personally reassure him there would be no changes to the decades-old status quo.

A Palestinian slammed his car into pedestrians in Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing a border policeman and wounding nine other people in the second such attack in a fortnight.

Israel's parliament has passed a law that could block the release in any future peace negotiations of Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The 120-member Knesset voted late Monday 35 to 15 in favor of the bill, which was initiated by a far-right politician and approved by the cabinet in June, a parliament spokesman told Agence France Presse.

Israeli plans for roughly 500 new settler homes in occupied east Jerusalem are a "slap in the face" of the United States and the international community, a top Palestinian official said.

Israel approved construction of the homes on Monday as chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in the United States, according to settlements watchdog Peace Now.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has outraged Israeli leaders by calling the attempted assassin of a Jewish ultra-right-wing rabbi a "martyr" and the soldiers who killed him "terrorist gangs".

Abbas on Sunday sent a letter of condolence to the family of 32-year-old Muataz Hijazi, killed by Israeli police who said he had tried to murder Yehuda Glick.

Clashes raged in east Jerusalem Thursday after police shot dead a Palestinian accused of trying to kill a Jewish hardliner, prompting officials to close the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Israel said its closure of the shrine, which is holy to Jews and Muslims, was a temporary measure aimed at calming tempers, but Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said it was tantamount to a "declaration of war".

Hizbullah is more dangerous than militant groups operating in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli army general said, expressing belief that the party has dug tunnels across the border from Lebanon in preparation for any future war with the Jewish State.

As a result of the greater threat from Hizbullah and in the event of a future conflict, the Israeli army will have to take “many more decisive acts and employ much more power” than it did in Gaza, Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan, commander of Israeli forces on the Lebanese and Syrian fronts, told Army Radio on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back Tuesday at foreign attacks of plans for more than 1,000 new Jewish homes in east Jerusalem, saying the criticism was "detached from reality".

"I've heard the claim that our construction in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem distances peace," he said in remarks released by his office.

Israel pledged Monday to build more than 1,000 new settler homes in Arab east Jerusalem, in a move the Palestinians warned was likely to trigger an "explosion" of violence.

The announcement by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angered the Palestinians who said it would inflame tensions in the eastern sector of the city which has been plagued by almost daily clashes for the past four months.

Israel deployed police in force in Jerusalem Friday for weekly Muslim prayers and restricted access to a flashpoint mosque, after a deadly attack by a Palestinian sent tensions soaring.

Clashes broke out for a second night after the Palestinian ploughed his car into a crowd of pedestrians on Wednesday, killing a baby and injuring six other people before he was shot dead by police.