The United Nations said Thursday it had accepted for deposit, in keeping with international procedure, a request from the Palestinians to join 13 international conventions and treaties, as Israel froze the transfer of some taxes to the Palestinian Authority as a retaliatory measure.

The requests were submitted to U.N. headquarters on April 2 by Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held a fresh round of U.S.-mediated talks Thursday to try to revive crisis-hit peace talks, officials said.

"The gaps are narrowing, but any speculation about an agreement are premature at this time," said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

Israeli police arrested five ultra-Orthodox Jews who threw stones at them during a Jerusalem protest Thursday against a new law making men in their community subject to compulsory national service.

"Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in (the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of) Mea Sharim, stopped traffic and threw stones and bottles at police," Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse, adding that five of them were arrested.

Israeli soldiers shot and wounded three Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday near the border security fence, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

The three were in moderate condition after the incident, which occurred near Beit Hanoun, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told Agence France Presse.

Washington on Wednesday denounced as "unfortunate" an order from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit his cabinet's contacts with their Palestinian counterparts.

"We are certainly aware of the announcement. We regard it as unfortunate," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, as her boss John Kerry met with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Arab foreign ministers gathered on Wednesday with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said Israel was "wholly responsible for the dangerous stalemate" in U.S.-brokered peace talks scheduled to end on April 29.

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also blamed the approval of Israeli settlements in annexed Arab east Jerusalem for derailing peace talks with the Palestinians, but accused both sides of intransigence.

Israel's approval of controversial new settlements scuppered an opportunity for progress in U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday.

The Israeli government announced a major expansion of settlement construction in the West Bank last month, just as Washington was scrambling for a way to get the two sides to extend peace talks beyond an April 29 deadline.

Clashes between Jewish settlers and Israeli security forces in the West Bank during the night left eight people including six border guards injured, police said on Tuesday.

"Police came to help soldiers to demolish five illegal constructions near Yitzhar," a settlement in the northern West Bank, police spokeswoman Luba Samri told Agence France Presse.

Israel has told the Palestinians that a planned release of 26 prisoners cannot proceed, placing already embattled peace talks in further jeopardy after both sides took steps Washington called "unhelpful."

Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians has told them that the planned release cannot go ahead, a source close to the embattled talks told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met their U.S. counterparts overnight Thursday to discuss ways to prevent the complete collapse of peace talks after both sides took steps Washington criticized as "unhelpful."

More than a year of shuttle diplomacy by Secretary of State John Kerry was in jeopardy after Israel made a new bid to expand settlements in annexed Arab east Jerusalem and the Palestinians took fresh steps toward seeking recognition of their promised state.