LIVE BLOG: Violence in Jerusalem

It has now been confirmed that 35-year old Seif Zidan, the Israeli police officer injured in this morning's synagogue attack, has died in hospital from his injuries.

The latest death brings the toll to 5 - seven other people were also injured in the attack, before the two attackers were shot dead.

The finance committee of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, today voted to extend the ban on importing fireworks until 15 February 2015.

Karin Elharhar, who was chairing the committee, said the committee had voted after a sugesstion by Israel's Economy Minister, Naftali Bennett, and Yitzhak Aharonovitch, responsible for internal security, complained that pyrotechnics were being used in Israel to target "both security personnel and civilians."

Hours after the extension was approved, videos show protesters in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Wadi al-Joz sending a volley of fireworks into the skies during clashes with Israeli forces.

Dozens of Israeli forces were deployed, firing flares into the air.

At least 23 people have been arrested so far this evening in clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians.

Further violence is widely expected to break out tomorrow morning.

A group of right-wing activists will gather at the Damascus gate, in the Arab quarter of the Jerusalem's Old City, to perform morning prayers at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT).

The Facebook invitation to the event is asking participants to come "armed."

The call comes after Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch announced a laxing of laws surrounding gun ownership, and news that Jerusalem police are to begin recruiting volunteers with the right to bear arms to join Jerusalem's Civil Guard.

Fierce clashes have broken out in Ras al-Amoud, an East Jerusalem neighbourhood just south-east of the city's Old City.

Fires raged in the suburb's streets, as Israeli forces used megaphones to announce a curfew.

Earlier, protesters had hurled a Molotov cocktail towards an Israeli army Jeep - no injuries were reported.

The East Jerusalem neighbourhood comes under the remit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's landmark order that new checkpoints be established at the entrances to the city's Arab neighbourhoods.

Around 300 far-right Israeli protesters gathered in the entrance to Jerusalem on Tuesday night, to protest following the attack on the synagogue earlier in the day.

The protesters tried to block a road in the area, and police used horses to disperse them, arresting six activists.

Demonstrators held up photos of Meir Kahane, the ultra-nationalist Jewish activist who found the Jewish Defence League and the Kach party in Israel, a far-right party which was was banned in the 1980's for its racism.

Benjamn Netanyahu has announced that checkpoints are to be set up at the entrance to East Jerusalem's Palestinian neighbourhoods, the first time such an action has been taken in decades.

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch has also announced a laxing in laws around gun ownership and carrying of weapons.

Mourners gather at the funeral of three of the Israeli worshippers, including Rabbi Mosheh Twersky, killed in an attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said at a press conference that he demands the world's "condemnation" over the killings in the Jerusalem synagogue.

“I would like to see shock, I would like to see a condemnation, a real uprooting, not a compromise,” he said.

“The world watches this massacre but does not demand that Palestinians stop their incitement against Israel which is the root of this violence. I expect to hear that very same uncompromising condemnation.”

He called for "national unity" saying he would "uphold law, order and security throughout the streets of Jerusalem. I have decided to dismantle the homes of the terrorists … and to enforce law, to make punishments more severe, and to outlaw certain organizations.”

“Citizens of Israel I call upon you to be alert, abide by the law. We will repay all those terrorists … but nobody, nobody must take the law into their own hands, even during a storm or when the blood boils.”

He also denied a rift between himself and the Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen, over accusations of incitement against PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

He told reporters that he did not believe Abbas was calling for terrorism, but that the PA still incited it through its rhetoric.

In an interview with London-based Al-Hiwar, Rabah Muhanna, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has confirmed that the two men involved in the attack on the synagogue were members of the organisation, but denied responsibility for the attack on the synagogue saying responsibility for any such action would lie with the group's military wing, the Ali Abu Mustapha Brigades.

The Jerusalem police have begun recruiting civilian volunteers for for Jerusalem's Civil Guard, the mayor of Jerusalem announced on Tuesday.

"We decided to conduct an extensive campaign to recruit volunteers for Jerusalem's Civil Guard," Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said at the end of a situation assessment with Police Commissioner Lieutenant Yohanan Danino and Jerusalem District Commander Moshe Edri.

"I call on the citizens of Jerusalem to volunteer and strengthen the civilian aid to security forces," Barkat said.

Any citizens licensed to carry arms have been called on by City Hall to join the volunteer force.

There are early reports of a stabbing attack in Jerusalem around 6pm local time. An unidentified patient, reportedly lightly wounded, is being rushed to a hospital.

More to follow.

US President Barack Obama strongly condemned the attack on the synagogue in Jerusalem in a statement released on Tuesday, while also calling on Israelis and Palestinians to "work cooperatively to lower tensions."

"The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the victims and families of all those who were killed and injured in this horrific attack and in other recent violence," it read.

"At this sensitive moment it is all the more important for Israeli and Palestinian leaders and ordinary citizens to work cooperatively together to lower tensions, reject violence and seek a path forward towards peace."

Writing in +972mag, Noam Sheizef lambasts the Israeli government, levelling the blame at them for creating the conditions leading to the murder of worshippers in a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday:

"Nothing can justify the murder of worshipers in a synagogue. The murders should be condemned, and Jerusalem’s residents, Jews and Arabs alike, deserve absolute personal security. But it’s no time to be sanctimonious: the overall responsibility is the government’s. Netanyahu, Bennett and Liberman’s vision — the same vision that is being put into action with the help of Livni and Lapid’s acquiescence — is one of civil war between Jews and Arabs; a war that sometimes crawls under the carpet and sometimes explodes with violence. Nothing beyond that. Not two states and not one state, not warm peace and not cold peace — simply nothing. Just stricter laws against stone throwers, laws against the 'release of terrorists', laws against the Arabic language, new prisons to hold all of the new arrestees, gradual annexation, and ensuring the Palestinian population remains relegated to a status as second-, third- or fourth-class citizens."

Yoram Cohen, chief of the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) has reportedly denied that PA President Mahmoud Abbas is intentionally inciting terrorism in Jerusalem, contradicting statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to the Jerusalem Post, he also implored the Israeli government not to provoke more violence by changing the status quo on the al-Aqsa compound/Temple Mount.

Social media has been circulating a still of a CNN report on the attack in Jerusalem in which the religious building attacked is referred to as a "mosque" rather than a "synagogue."