U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Saturday as part of an international diplomatic push to quell a wave of deadly Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The talks came as a Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli security guard in the West Bank and was killed, according to police, in the latest in a string of such attacks.

Israel lifted age limits for prayers at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound Friday in an apparent bid to ease tensions as nearly 90 people were injured in clashes in Gaza and the West Bank.

While thousands of Muslims prayed without incident at the ultra-sensitive site, young Palestinians clashed with Israeli police in the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip, leaving scores injured by Israeli gunfire, according to emergency services.

Three Israelis were wounded and two Palestinians were killed Tuesday in a stabbing and a car attack in the occupied West Bank, as a Palestinian was killed and five others were wounded by Israeli fire along the Gaza Strip border.

Tuesday's first attack saw an Israeli soldier stabbed during clashes near the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron and the alleged 23-year-old Palestinian assailant shot dead.

Israel on Sunday rejected a proposal to send international observers to a flashpoint holy site in a bid to calm unrest after five more stabbing incidents defied a security crackdown.

Diplomatic moves to halt the more than two weeks of unrelenting violence gained steam meanwhile, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry saying he planned to meet both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the coming days.

Palestinians torched a site revered by Jews in the West Bank in an incident that threatened to further inflame two weeks of deadly unrest, as fresh protests erupted Friday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, under pressure over recent comments that some have labeled incitement, quickly condemned the fire at Joseph's Tomb, in the northern city of Nablus.

The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss an upsurge of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, diplomats said.

The urgent talks were requested by council member Jordan following a meeting on Thursday of Arab ambassadors who expressed alarm at the escalating situation.

Security forces deployed to Israeli cities Thursday and Jews armed themselves with everything from guns to broomsticks after more stabbings shook Jerusalem, the latest in a wave of Palestinian knife attacks.

Some 300 Israeli soldiers were reinforcing police, stretched thin by an upsurge in violence that began at the start of the month and which has raised fears of a full-scale uprising, or third Palestinian intifada.

A fresh wave of stabbings shook Israel and the West Bank on Friday, including a suspected revenge attack by a Jewish suspect that wounded two Palestinians and two Arab Israelis.

Attacks also continued against Israelis and Jews, with a Palestinian stabbing a policeman near a West Bank settlement before being shot dead by the victim, who was lightly wounded.

New clashes erupted Monday in the West Bank and east Jerusalem while Israel's military shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged a crackdown following attacks that killed four Israelis.

The spike in violence has led to international calls for calm, with concerns the unrest could spin out of control and memories of previous Palestinian uprisings still fresh.

A senior Hamas official Saturday called on Palestinians to take up arms to "defend" the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem after a rise in Jewish visitors to the flashpoint site.

"The only solution to defend the Al-Aqsa mosque and to prevent Israelis from carrying out their plans there is for West Bank and Jerusalem residents to take up arms," Mahmoud Zahar said in an interview posted on the Islamist movement's website.