A bomb has exploded in a car park under an apartment block in a Jewish settlement on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israeli police said.

Israel radio reports that one person was lightly injured in the blast. Police have sealed off the area and evacuated the building as they search for more devices.

The bomb came as tensions between Israelis and Palestinians soared in the city after Israeli riot police stormed the Aqsa mosque compound to disperse stone-throwing Palestinian demonstrators.

Clashes had broken out as Palestinians had tried to stop a messianic Jewish group from placing a symbolic cornerstone on the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif - a complex holy to Jews and Muslims.

The Palestinian demonstrators were eventually persuaded to leave the area on Sunday evening after Arab Israeli MP Ahmed Tibi mediated with the Palestinians bunkered inside the Aqsa mosque.

Eighteen Palestinians and 15 Israeli police were reported to have been injured in the earlier violence.

Rubber bullets

As Israeli police stormed the compound, firing stun grenades and tear gas, 26 Palestinians were arrested.

The eighteen injured Palestinians were taken to hospital, three of whom reportedly suffered wounds from rubber-coated bullets. The rest were either beaten or suffering from tear-gas inhalation, Palestinian hospital officials said.

Israeli police have denied using rubber-coated bullets during the action. Jerusalem police chief Miki Levy said police used "only clubs and stun grenades".

'Provocation'
An official at one hospital said some medics at the scene were prevented from treating the wounded and were beaten by Israeli police.

The Palestinians and Arab states have been swift to condemn Israel for the action. Arab League spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said the police decision to storm the mosque was "an act of supreme provocation". In Cairo, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said that the events were indication of the "extent of Israeli bad intentions".

"Bad intentions will have serious consequences," he warned.

Symbolic date
The clashes came on the day that observant Jews commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples, which stood on the site where the Aqsa mosque is today.

A tiny messianic Jewish group, the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful, wanted to place a cornerstone on the site on Sunday as a symbolic first step towards building a Third Temple.

Israel's Supreme Court ruled earlier in the week that they could not place the stone on the site for security reasons. In the event, Israeli police prevented the Jewish militants from approaching the Aqsa mosque. They brought the stone to a parking lot near a gate to the Old City of Jerusalem instead and later took it away again. bbc.com Sunday 29 July

Pictured below: Palestinans hurl shoes as Israeli police storm the al Aqsa mosque on Temple Mount.