Voices in the Moselm world are urging Palestinians to violently act out on Friday in protest against beefed up security measures Israel has deployed to secure the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City following last Friday’s shooting attack which killed two Israeli police officers there. However, feverish diplomatic efforts are underway between the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan to calm tensions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with his counterparts from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic at the Visegrád Group summit in Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday. During the closed-door session, Netanyahu’s words were unintentionally broadcast to audio devices being worn by journalists waiting outside the room to cover the post-meeting press conference.

Tensions between the US and Iran spiked this week as Washington imposed new economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its violations of the “spirit” of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear accord. Iranian officials declared that by taking such steps it was in fact the US who was not living up to the agreement. The leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps gave a stark warning to the US on Wednesday, that it should remove its military bases from the region and avoid “miscalculations” in its dealings with his country.

British Rock & Roll band Radiohead, led by vocalist Thom Yorke, shrugged off massive pressure from the international movement to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel by performing at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on Wednesday evening. The band was making its first appearance in Israel since 2000, and thousands of overjoyed fans turned out to show their appreciation.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released materials on Wednesday demonstrating the humanitarian support Israel has extended to the civilian population caught in the crossfire of Syria’s civil war in a project it calls “Operation Good Neighbor.” The efforts to send tons of humanitarian supplies, treat wounded civilians and otherwise assist people in Syria were launched in June of 2016 and have “a significant impact on Israel’s security,” according to Brig.-Gen. Yaniv Ashur, who added “we have learned from the Americans, who lost the Iraqi population. We realized that we could do more for the population near our border than what we were doing at the time.”

I spoke to several Fatah sources in east Jerusalem on July 17, 2017, as the “metal detector” crisis began to build, and their bottom-line is that they feel they are left alone to defend Jerusalem. They fear they may lose control of the situation; some individuals may take action on their own with serious consequences.

The goal of Operation Good Neighbor is to provide humanitarian aid to as many people as possible while maintaining Israel’s policy of non-involvement in the Syrian conflict. The first activities coordinated by the headquarters took place in August 2016. Since then, there have been more than 110 aid operations of various kinds.