Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians at a Jerusalem holy site could spark more widespread violence in the region, a UN envoy warned Tuesday.
UN coordinator Nickolay Mladenov delivered the warning to the Security Council on the third straight day of violence at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
"As the Middle East faces a vicious tide of terror and extremism, such serious provocations have the potential to ignite violence well beyond the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem," Mladenov said.
A senior official from the radical-Islamist Hamas organization meanwhile warned that Israeli actions on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem are tantamount to a "declaration of war."