JERUSALEM — In an attempt at diplomatic damage control, Israel’s prime minister reassured Jordan’s king Thursday that he won’t yield to increasing demands by some members of his center-right coalition to allow Jews to pray at a Muslim-run holy site in Jerusalem.

The phone call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and King Abdullah II came a day after riot police clashed with Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest shrine.

Jordan, which is the custodian of the site, recalled its ambassador in protest.

Israeli-Palestinian confrontations have been escalating in Jerusalem, including near-daily clashes between stone-throwing Palestinians and Israeli riot police. Some of the attacks have turned deadly in recent weeks.

Underlying the tensions is long-running frustration among the city’s 300,000 Palestinians with what many of them view as oppressive Israeli practices, such as restrictions on building, and a separation wall that cuts through Arab neighborhoods.

The unrest was triggered by Muslim fears of Jewish encroachment at the sacred site, a hilltop plateau known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The complex houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the gold-topped Dome of the Rock. Jews also revere it as the location of their biblical temples and the most important site in Judaism.

Since Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, Jewish worshippers have been allowed to visit – but not pray – at the site. The area is run by Muslim authorities under Jordanian custody.

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