U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that Israel and the Palestinians are determined to push forward with peace talks.

"Despite tough decisions that have to be made and despite pressure that exists on both sides... both the Palestinians and Israelis have remained steadfast in their commitment to continuing the talks," Kerry said in Paris after a meeting with Arab League officials.

Israeli police fired stun grenades at stone-throwing Palestinian protesters after Friday prayers in Jerusalem's Old City, arresting 15 of them, police said.

"Several hundred Palestinian youths demonstrated after Friday prayers in the al-Aqsa compound, and threw stones at Israeli security forces," spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

Middle East peace talks have so far proved "futile," a senior Palestinian official said on Wednesday, calling for greater U.S. participation in talks.

"Until now there has been no progress," the Palestine Liberation Organization's Yasser Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio, after several weeks of meetings between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

Israel on Wednesday released a firebrand Arab-Israeli Islamist preacher on bail, a day after arresting him over "incitement" against the Jewish state, a police spokeswoman said.

(Sheikh) Raed Salah was sent home "after accepting the conditions of his release," Luba Samri told Agence France Presse.

The Arab League said Tuesday an Arab ministerial delegation would meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Rome on Sunday to discuss Israel-Palestinian peace talks.

The meeting would discuss "the best ways to provide the necessary support for the success of these negotiations," Nassif Hetti, spokesman for Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi told reporters.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held another secret round of peace talks over the weekend, a Palestinian official said on Monday, adding that there had been "no breakthrough" so far.

"A round of talks was held on Saturday evening between the Israelis and Palestinians -- this is the fourth round," since they restarted more than a month ago, the official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

When Israeli bulldozers knocked down their home, Khaled Zir al-Husseini and his family had to find a new roof over their heads, so they moved just down the hill and into a cave.

The stench of garbage fills their cramped new dwelling, as debris from fragments of their demolished home, just above, fall down the side of the hill and onto the main road in east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood.

A Palestinian from Gaza who was snatched from Ukraine and locked in an Israeli prison has ended a week-long hunger strike, Palestinian militants and an Israeli official said on Thursday.

Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said on its website that Dirar Abu Sisi ended his protest on Wednesday after reaching an unspecified agreement with officials at Eshel prison, near the southern Israeli city of Beersheva.

The United States insisted Monday that no meeting planned as part of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace process had been cancelled, despite claims to the contrary.

"I can assure you that no meeting has been cancelled," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters, after reports a session had been cancelled after Israeli forces shot dead three Palestinians.

Egypt's foreign minister condemned Israel's killing of three Palestinians on Monday and vowed to work on for inter-Palestinian reconciliation, as he held talks in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

"We condemn the occupation forces' killing of three people from Qalandiya refugee camp," Nabil Fahmi told a joint news conference with his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Malki.