Israel on Thursday blasted the U.S. State Department for charging that its security forces had potentially been using excessive force against Palestinian protesters.

Israeli Police Minister Gilad Erdan accused the U.S. Administration of “hypocrisy’’ and called the criticism “unfounded’’ and “distorted.’’

A Palestine protester being carried to safety after being injured by Israeli forces

“Every sane person knows full well how the police in the U.S. would act if militants armed with knives and axes murdered civilians in New York and Washington.

“There should be a limit to the American State Department’s hypocrisy,’’ Erdan told newsmen.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby, clarifying earlier remarks by Secretary of State John Kerry, told newsmen: “I think, again, without qualifying each and every one of them, we’ve certainly seen some reports of security activity that could indicate the potential excessive use of force.

“And again, we do not want to see that anywhere. We do not want to see that here in our own country. So yeah, we are concerned about that,’’ he said.

The last 11 days have seen 22 Palestinian in stabbing attacks against Israelis.

Many of the stabbers and their supporters have charged that Israel wanted to change the status quo observed for decades at a disputed Jerusalem holy site, which housed al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine.

Israel vehemently denied the charge and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Muslim leaders of inflaming the region by spreading wild lies.

The worst spell of street violence in years is also an expression of the frustration of a new Palestinian generation at the failure to achieve statehood through peace negotiations.

Seven Israelis and 21 Palestinians from the West Bank and Jerusalem, 16 of them assailants who were shot dead while or after stabbing Israelis, have been killed.

Another 11 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip while storming the Israeli border and in an airstrike responding to Palestinian rocket fire.

Report says some 1,445 Palestinians have been wounded by rubber bullets or live rounds in clashes with Israeli security forces