Palestinians take to streets in Jerusalem

Clinton also said US and Israeli officials are in intense talks about how to repair the damage caused by Israel’s announcement.

“We are engaged in very active consultations with the Israelis over steps that we think would demonstrate the requisite commitment to the process,’’ she said at a State Department news conference. She did not say when Mitchell would return to the region.

Netanyahu ordered his ministers and spokesmen not to talk to the media about the construction in East Jerusalem. Interior Minister Eli Yishai, whose office issued the order for the new homes, however, agreed to discuss other issues in an interview with the Associated Press.

Yishai said he hoped the tensions with the Palestinians ease. “The riots are not appropriate. There are people who are interested in provoking unrest and inflaming the region,’’ he said.

He also expressed regret over the dispute with Washington and said Israel was taking unspecified measures to defuse the situation. But an aide poked an AP reporter in the back when he asked about the contentious construction plan, and Yishai abruptly ended the interview.

Netanyahu has apologized for the timing of the project’s approval, but has not said it would be canceled.

The feud is feeding already high tension in East Jerusalem.

Palestinian officials had called on the public to defend Muslim religious interests in Jerusalem after the rededication Monday of a historic synagogue in the Jewish quarter of the Old City. The rededication has stoked rumors that Jewish extremists are planning to take over the hilltop shrine at the crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the unrest appears to reflect a deeper frustration over the yearlong standstill in peace efforts.

“Jerusalem is witnessing the largest Jewish projects aimed at swallowing the city,’’ said Hatem Abdel Qader, an adviser on Jerusalem affairs to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. “This strong reaction from the Palestinian street sends a message to the Israelis that we will not accept that.’’

Israel annexed East Jerusalem after capturing it from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. But the international community does not recognize the annexation and considers the Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem illegal settlements. Some 180,000 Jews now live in a ring of Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, alongside 250,000 Palestinians in Arab neighborhoods.

In the Gaza Strip, the Islamic militant Hamas group held a rally to protest what it claimed was an assault on Muslim holy places in Jerusalem.

“We address a message to our brothers in the West Bank: ‘Go out for resistance and uprising,’’’ said Ahmad al-Bahar, deputy Parliament speaker.