FACTBOX: Factors to watch from Israel, Palestinians

(Reuters) - U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell launched on Thursday another attempt to persuade Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks, returning to the region in advance of a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Here is the state of play on key issues affecting Israel and the Palestinians and the factors to watch in the coming weeks:

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday he saw no possibility of restarting negotiations in the near future unless Israel agreed to freeze settlement activity in line with a 2003 peace "road map".

Israel has shown no sign of budging from its refusal to halt all construction in settlements in the occupied West Bank and Israeli government officials also have said peace talks are unlikely to get under way soon.

Mitchell signaled after President Barack Obama brought Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas together at a summit in New York on September 22 that a total cessation of building in the settlements was not essential for the resumption of peace talks.

Israeli officials have voiced doubt Abbas could compromise on the issue in the run-up to parliamentary and presidential elections the Fatah party leader has called for January 24 over the objections of rival Hamas Islamists who run the Gaza Strip.

But even if an agreement is reached on the settlement issue, Abbas has made clear Israel must honor agreements on borders and Jerusalem that he said its previous government made in talks in 2008.

As Obama's peace quest flounders, watch for any sign from Washington that it might consider indirect talks as an alternative to bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

The rift between Fatah and Hamas, shunned by Israel and the West, is an additional obstacle to achieving the Palestinian goal of statehood.

Abbas angered Hamas by setting an election date after the Islamist group pulled back from signing an Egyptian-mediated reconciliation pact. Hamas has told Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to shun the ballot.

Tensions also have risen in Jerusalem, where Israeli police and Palestinians clashed on Sunday at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in the holy city

The unrest, which followed a similar incident a month ago, did not appear to herald any immediate slide into widespread violence that could disrupt U.S. peace efforts.

But the confrontation was reminiscent of the opening days of a Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000 after then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the Jerusalem holy site.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller)