Israeli police entered a controversial holy site in Jerusalem and clashed with Palestinians there on Friday, said an Israeli police spokesman.

Several hundreds of police officers entered the Temple Mount compound, which was known by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, after Palestinian youths threw stones at Jewish prayers from the hilltop, said Micky Rosenfeld, spokesman for Israel Police.

The Palestinian young men responded to the police entry by hurling stones at them. Security forces used stun grenades and other means to disperse the crowd.

Fifteen police officers were lightly wounded, and four Palestinians were arrested, Rosenfeld told Xinhua. The Bethlehem- based Maan News Agency reported that 60 Palestinians were injured, among which a woman was in serious condition.

An official of the Waqf, the Islamic trust which controls the place's day-to-day management, told local daily Ha'aretz that the collision followed a mosque sermon in the compound focusing on Islamic sites being targeted by Israel and the need to preserve them.

Israeli cabinet on Feb. 21 approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's National Heritage Plan, in which two West Bank religious sites - the Cave of the Patriarchs (known to Muslim as the Sanctuary of Abraham) in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb (Bilal Mosque) in Bethlehem - are among the 150 heritage sites to be restored.

The Israeli move triggered wide criticism, as well as continuing violence, which reached a high point last week when hundreds of Palestinians collided with Israeli security forces in Hebron.

The incident is also the latest of fights between Israelis and Palestinians over the holy place. Israeli police broke into the complex last Sunday after some Palestinians threw stones at visitors there. The entry of Israeli security personnel into the area was severely condemned by Muslim countries.

Considered as the holiest place in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam, the holy hilltop has been a tinderbox of violence between Israelis and Muslims after it was captured by Israel together with all of East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War.

In September 2000, Israel's then opposition leader Ariel Sharon, who later became prime minister, visited the Temple Mount under the escort of hundreds of police officers, which was believed to be an important cause of the Second Intifida, a period of intensified Israeli-Palestinian violence claiming thousands of lives.