Australian's foreign minister met Arab and Islamic ambassadors Thursday to try to soothe concerns over Canberra's stance on East Jerusalem, insisting there was no policy change despite moves to stop referring to it as "occupied".

The meeting followed fury after Attorney-General George Brandis said the term would not be used as it carried pejorative implications and was neither appropriate nor useful.

Israeli troops arrested some 30 Palestinians in the West Bank overnight as they ramped up a massive search for three teenagers believed kidnapped by Hamas, the army said on Thursday. 

The arrests raised the  number of Palestinians detained to 280, of whom around three-quarters are members of the Islamist Hamas movement, a military statement said. 

The United States on Wednesday called on both Israel and the Palestinians to show restraint as Israelis tightened their grip on the West Bank hunting for three kidnapped teenagers.

"We recognize this is an incredibly sensitive and difficult circumstance on the ground, and we feel all sides should exercise restraint," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

Israel further tightened its grip on the West Bank Wednesday, arresting another 65 people, as Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas lashed out at those behind the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers.

As the hunt for the youths entered its sixth day, there was no let-up in Israel's drive to deal a crushing blow to the West Bank infrastructure of Islamist movement Hamas, which it has blamed for the kidnapping.

Hamas slammed Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas's support for security coordination with Israel on Wednesday, as the Jewish state pursued a manhunt for three teens believed kidnapped by the Islamist movement.

"President Abbas's statements on security coordination with Israel are unjustified, harmful to Palestinian reconciliation... and a psychological blow to the thousands of Palestinian prisoners suffering a slow death in the occupation's jails," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

Israel gave approval Wednesday for the construction of 172 new homes for Jewish settlers in annexed east Jerusalem, a city councilor said, nearly two weeks after it announced thousands.

"The municipality approved this morning the construction of 172 apartments in Har Homa," Jerusalem city councilor Yosef Pepe Alalu of the left-wing Meretz party, who opposes settlements, told AFP.

Israel is to rush through a bill allowing force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners, a newspaper reported Tuesday, as 80 Palestinian inmates were hospitalized after refusing to eat for nearly two months.

Efforts to speed up the passage of the bill, which passed a first reading on June 9, are being led by Miri Regev, a hardline member of the ruling Likud who initiated the legislation, Haaretz newspaper reported.

Israel stepped up efforts to crush Hamas in the West Bank Tuesday as the hunt for three Israeli teenagers believed kidnapped by the Islamist movement entered its fifth day.

Thousands of troops searching for the youths turned their attention overnight to the northern West Bank city of Nablus and surrounding area, arresting 41 Palestinians, the army said.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday appointed Italian general Luciano Portolano to head the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

Portolano will succeed his countryman and fellow general Paolo Serra, who is leaving the post on July 24 after two-and-a-half years.

The uncle of a missing Israeli teenager made a heartfelt plea for "mercy" to his suspected kidnappers Monday, after the family spent a fourth sleepless night worrying for his safety.

Naftali Frenkel, 16, who holds joint Israeli and U.S. citizenship, is one of three teenagers Israel says were kidnapped last week from the southern West Bank by militants from the Islamist Hamas movement.