Kerry lays out steps to ease Israeli-Palestinian strife

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) holds a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II at his palace in Amman, October 24, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

AMMAN/JERUSALEM - The United States on Saturday proposed steps, including 24-hour video surveillance, to end weeks of violence over a Jerusalem site holy to Muslims and Jews.

Speaking in Amman after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Israel had embraced "an excellent suggestion" by the king, who is the custodian of the site within Jerusalem's walled Old City, for round-the-clock monitoring.

Kerry said Israel had also given assurances it had no intention of changing the status quo at the al-Aqsa mosque compound that is the third holiest site in Islam. Muslims refer to the site as the Noble Sanctuary, or Haram al-Sharif, Jews call it Temple Mount.

In a detailed statement, Netanyahu said Israel recognised "the importance of the Temple Mount to peoples of all three monotheistic faiths... and reaffirms its commitment to upholding unchanged the status quo of the Temple Mount, in word and in practice."

He echoed Kerry's statement that Israel would enforce its long-standing policy under which Muslims may pray at the site but Jews, Christians and members of other faiths may only visit but not pray, and that Israel had no intention of dividing up the compound.