France condemns attack by Palestinian in Jerusalem

The French Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned the attack Wednesday in Jerusalem in which an Israeli border guard was killed and several civilians were wounded.
A Palestinian, who has since surrendered to Israeli police, drove a vehicle into a crowd in Jerusalem amid rising tension in the city after clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces.
The tension rose even further after Israeli security forces penetrated in the holy Al-Aqsa compound and even entered the revered Mosque there.
That action prompted widespread reactions across the Muslim world and the withdrawal by Jordan of its ambassador to Israel in protest at the violation of the holy site.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in Paris on Wednesday, while condemning the Palestinian's action, also expressed concern over the violation of Al-Aqsa and said he was particularly worried about reports that damage was caused during the Israeli raid.
He said "religious sites should not become sites of conflict." Meanwhile, Paris did not react specifically Thursday to the Al-Aqsa incident but confined itself to expressing concern about the impact of the "terrorist attack" by the Palestinian driver in Jerusalem.
"More than ever, the deterioration of the situation underlines the imperious necessity of making serious progress in the direction of peace," the Foreign Ministry said here.