**Palestinians and Israeli security forces have clashed in the West Bank city of Hebron.**The protests follow an Israeli move to to designate two West Bank shrines as heritage sites.
The move, announced on Sunday, has drawn criticism abroad and in some of the Israeli press.
Palestinian Authority PM Salam Fayyad attended Friday prayers at the Cave of Patriarchs - one of the sites - to show his government’s opposition.
Palestinian organisations had declared Friday a day of popular protest across the Palestinian territories.
Protests continued sporadically all week and on Thursday the Palestinian Authority in Bethlehem began a three-day strike.
Reports on Friday say that protestors threw stones at Israeli soldiers at Hebron’s Pharmacy Junction.
Restoration plan
On Sunday Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron would be included in an Israeli-funded $107m (£69m) restoration plan. Both sites are sacred to Muslims and Jews.
Rachel, the biblical matriarch holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, is believed to be buried in a tomb near the entrance to Bethlehem.
Some Muslims say the tomb is also a mosque.
The shrine is on the Israeli side of the West Bank barrier. The Israelis say this is for security reasons, but Palestinians say it constitutes a land grab, and the International Court of Justice has ruled that the barrier is illegal and should be removed where it did not follow the Green Line, the internationally recognised boundary between the West Bank and Israel.
The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is where the Bible says Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were buried with three of their wives. It is known to Muslims as the al-Ibrahimi mosque.
Palestinians said they feared their access to the sites - important to Muslims and Jews - would be limited. This was denied by Israeli officials.
Criticism
In a bid to calm tensions, Mr Netanyahu told Israeli television on Thursday that there was a “misunderstanding”.
“This is not a political decision It doesn’t change anything in that sense. It is concerned with preserving heritage,” he said.
But the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, UNESCO, the United Nations’ culture and education body and some European countries have expressed reservations at the plan. On Wednesday US State Department official Mark Toner called the move “provocative”.
Mr Netanyahu has also come under fire in the national press. Left-leaning Haaretz newspaper called the prime minister a “master pyromaniac”.
The rightwing Maariv newspaper was also critical, accusing the premier of “having learnt nothing from the past”.