UN's Ban presses for Israeli-Palestinian calm but tensions remain high

At a news conference with Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Ban denounced "hateful discourse" on both sides and said Israel's response to Palestinian knife attacks had "added to the already difficult challenges of restoring calm".

Nine Israelis have been killed in Palestinian stabbings, shootings and vehicle attacks since the start of October, while 48 Palestinians, among them children, have been killed by Israeli security forces.

In his comments after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, and again after meeting Abbas, Ban emphasised the need to reinforce the status quo at al-Aqsa, where non-Muslim prayer has been banned for centuries.

Israel says it has not and will not change the rules.

"I welcome Israel's repeated assurances that it has no intention of changing the historic status quo at the holy site," Ban said.

"In my meetings yesterday with Israeli officials, I stressed that only through actions on the ground will perceptions begin to change."

SHOOTINGS

On Wednesday, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian.

In a separate incident in the West Bank, soldiers shot and wounded a Palestinian woman with a knife who approached the settlement of Yitzhar, the military said. Palestinian medics said she was 15 and her family questioned the military account.

Netanyahu flew to Germany for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel later on Wednesday and was scheduled to meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Berlin on Thursday.

Kerry is set to travel to the region later in the week where he will meet King Abdullah of Jordan, who has a role as a custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.

Abbas will also meet Kerry and Abdullah in Jordan. As well as the holy site, Abbas has emphasised Israel's occupation of the West Bank and settlement-building as reasons for the surge in Palestinian violence, particularly among teenagers living in Israeli-controlled East Jerusalem.

In Paris, the executive board of the United Nations cultural heritage body UNESCO adopted a resolution on Wednesday condemning Israel's handling of the al-Aqsa issue.