JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Palestinians and Israel on Tuesday to step back from a "dangerous abyss" as he arrived on a snap visit to the region at the head of international efforts to quell three weeks of violence.
The bloodshed began with a string of stabbing attacks on Israelis in Jerusalem. One reason given by Palestinians for the violence is anger over perceived Jewish encroachment on Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine, also revered by Jews as the site of two biblical temples.