Last Friday there was the possibility they might boil over when Israeli authorities denied many Muslim worshippers access to the city’s important al-Aqsa mosque, casting a shadow over a US envoy’s visit to relaunch peace talks in the region.

Israeli police and soldiers erected checkpoints around the perimeter of the Old City ahead of Friday prayers as they braced for a wave of violence after a fortnight of sporadic hostilities.

Just days earlier, the authorities barred a prominent Muslim leader entry to Jerusalem for 30 days for inciting violence.

But few rallied to a leading ­Egyptian cleric’s call for a “day of anger” in response to heavy restrictions on entry to the al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims. In recent days, police have prevented men under the age of 50 from entering the site.

“People are coming to pray, not to start a war,” said Asmi Abadallah, 60, a Palestinian who was stopped for ­questioning at one of the entrances to the Old City.

Feelings have been running high since late September when Palestinian rioters lobbed stones at visitors to the al-Aqsa compound -- known as Temple Mount to Jews and al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims -- amid reports that Jewish extremists planned to hold prayers there. Israeli police later said the visitors were French tourists.

But many believe that merely served as a pretext to tap into wider grievances at Israel’s alleged efforts to “Judaise” Jerusalem, at growing Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and dismay at the Israeli ­government’s perceived lack of commitment to a durable peace settlement.

“We have a thousand reasons to be angry,” said Zahi Nujidat, a spokesman for the Islamic Movement. “Now these are the al-Aqsa days.”

Tensions threatened to mar the visit of George Mitchell, the US president’s special envoy to the Middle East, who held talks with Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in an effort to revive the stalled peace process. Netanyahu’s office described the meeting as “constructive”.

Mitchell, who also met with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, will hold further meetings with Israeli officials over the next few days.

But the Washington-led talks have been further complicated by comments last week from hawkish Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman that hopes of achieving a permanent peace in the region are unrealistic.

The Fatah-dominated government in the West Bank had warned of a “third intifada” or mass uprising, but this was widely seen as an effort to shore up the battered popularity of Abbas. Fatah’s call for a general strike went largely unheeded.

Abbas drew intense criticism for his decision to submit to US and Israeli pressure to delay debate of a United-Nations-backed report on the Gaza conflict, which was critical of Israeli actions.

He later backpedalled on his decision, but failed to prevent Islamic movement Hamas from exploiting his weakened position.

Abbas angered Palestinians when he agreed to meet Netanyahu in New York last month, breaking a pledge not to meet with the Israeli premier until settlement construction was halted.

But amid a day of conflicting messages and a massive police and army presence, the hoped-for uprising failed to materialise.

Hundreds of police patrolled the streets of the Old City, and put up checkpoints at the city’s gates and nearby roads. Helicopters hovered overhead, while dogs and mounted police were stationed just metres from the Old City’s gates.

Meanwhile, Christians held services as normal, the sound of prayer reverberating through the narrow alleys of the holy city.

Shortly before noon, hundreds of Palestinians prevented from entering the al-Aqsa mosque placed their prayer mats in the middle of the road just outside Lion’s Gate, one of the entrances to the Old City.

A young man leading the prayers on the street urged the men to be patient.

His calls were echoed in the main al-Aqsa mosque, where the Imam called for non-violent protest.

Less than a mile from the Old City in Ras Al Amud, masked Arabs retaliated to raids on local homes, throwing chairs and stones at police, but nobody was seriously injured.

“Is this the peace they talk about? Peace means you kill us and attack our homes?” shouted the mother of one of the men who was arrested.

Isolated clashes broke out elsewhere in Jerusalem, where the police presence was less concentrated. These were quickly dispersed.

But without a central charismatic figure around which to rally, many Palestinians today appear weary of the restrictions that dominate their daily lives, and display little fire for a sustained uprising.

The second intifada, which erupted in 2000, lasted four years and cost thousands of lives, most of them Palestinian.

“Resistance did not deliver, negotiations did not deliver. We have a crisis of leadership,” said Dr Mahdi Abdul Hadi, director of the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs.

“It’s not a third intifada, but a culture of hate and revenge.”