INTERNATIONAL: U.S. State Department delegation met Palestinian leaders in Ramallah to try to ease tensions on Thursday 21st April.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the delegation that Israel was responsible for the escalation and asked that the United States intervene, according to a Palestinian Authority official.

Earlier the delegation had met with Israeli leaders.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid discussed with the U.S. envoys "Israel’s efforts in this very challenging period to preserve the status quo on the Temple Mount," and called on regional leaders to help restore calm, according to a ministry statement.

Violence at the Jerusalem's holy shrine, revered to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary -Al-Aqsa mosque compound, and to Judaism as the Temple Mount, has surged over the past week, raising concerns about a slide back into wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli security forces have been on high alert with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan coinciding with the Jewish holiday Passover and Christianity's Easter.

The Arab League said Israel has broken the status quo and was allowing Jews to pray at the compound, calling it a "provocation." Israel, however, said there has been no change in its long-standing ban on Jewish prayer at the flashpoint site.

The future of Jerusalem is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Old City is in East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in a 1967 war and annexed in a move that has not won international recognition.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a state they seek to establish in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

^{PHOTO: PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS DURING MEETING WITH U.S STATE DEPARTMENT DELEGATION, ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR NEAR EASTERN AFFAIRS YAEL LEMPERT DURING MEETING WITH ABBAS, VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN LEADERS MEETING WITH U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT DELEGATION}