Israel took the rare and drastic step of barring Palestinians from Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday as fears of a further escalation in violence mounted after attacks that killed two Israelis and wounded a child. A series of clashes involving Israeli security forces, Jewish settlers and Palestinians also broke out in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with security chiefs to discuss the situation.
The Old City restrictions will be in place for two days, with only Israelis, tourists, residents of the area, business owners and students allowed, police said.
Worship at the sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound will be limited to men aged 50 and above. There will be no age restrictions on women.
The Palestinian government denounced "Israeli escalation" after the announcement of the ban, which Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan called unprecedented.
The usually bustling alleyways of the walled Old City were mostly quiet Sunday morning, with hundreds of police guarding entrances.
The latest attacks came with Israeli security forces already on alert after recent clashes at the Al-Aqsa compound and surrounding Old City, as well as the murder in the West Bank of a Jewish settler couple in front of their young children.
On Saturday night, a Palestinian said to be an Islamist militant killed two Israeli men and wounded a woman and a toddler in a knife and gun attack in the Old City. Police shot dead the attacker.
In a separate incident early Sunday, a 19-year-old Palestinian stabbed and wounded a 15-year-old passer-by in west Jerusalem before being shot dead by police while fleeing.