Israeli-palestinian Dispute, Jerusalem | featured news

Palestinian militants for the first time targeted the holy city of Jerusalem on Friday with rocket fire as Israel and the Islamist group Hamas inched closer to all-out war.

The Palestinian president warned on Sunday that he would not accept a U.S. proposal for resuming peace talks unless Israel stops building homes for Jews in disputed east Jerusalem.

The killing of a Palestinian man by an Israeli security guard leads to rioting in an Arab-dominated area. Rock-throwing attacks spread to the Old City amid tension over peace talks.

US President Barack Obama is to meet Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time since a row over East Jerusalem.

Israel has no intention of backing down in its argument with the United States over Israeli plans to build 1,600 apartments on disputed land in largely Arab East Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

Israel triggered a fresh rift with Washington over settlement building on Tuesday by approving the building of 900 homes for Jews on West Bank land it occupied in a 1967 war and annexed to its Jerusalem municipality.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he would not take orders over Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem, rejected on Sunday a U.S. demand to halt plans to build more homes for Jews in the disputed area.

The foreign minister of Israel's incoming government lives in a West Bank settlement and will begin life as a diplomat battling the perception that he is anti-Arab.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday promised vigorous and personal involvement in stalled Mideast peace efforts and criticized Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem as "unhelpful."