Israel said it hoped the United States would veto any moves at the United Nations to set a timeframe for its withdrawal from territory Palestinians seek for a state, but a senior US official said it was too early to say.

There were fierce clashes in East Jerusalem and fears of a new Palestinian uprising after Israeli police shot dead a 32-year-old Palestinian man suspected of having tried hours earlier to kill a far-right Jewish activist.

Palestinians are asking the UN Security Council to set a deadline of November 2016 for an Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 including East Jerusalem.

The Israeli military shot down a Syrian fighter jet that infiltrated its airspace over the Golan Heights today.

The British government said it deplored an Israeli decision to appropriate a large swathe of land inside the occupied West Bank, saying the move would seriously damage Israel’s international reputation.

Israel’s prime minister has said that three teenagers missing from the West Bank were taken by a terror group.

Israel has freed 26 Palestinian prisoners, the second of four batches to be released as part of a deal that set in motion the current Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The path to formal negotiations with Israel is still blocked despite a US suggestion that the sides are close to returning to the table, a senior Palestinian official has said in another sign of scepticism that peace talks will resume.

Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in the second and final phase of a swap with Hamas militants that brought home an Israeli soldier after five years in captivity.

The Palestinians have officially launched their campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state, saying they will stage a series of peaceful events in the run-up to the annual gathering of the UN General Assembly later this month.

ISRAELI troops fired at demonstrators in Syria who rushed toward the border fence yesterday in what Israel called a challenge to its sovereignty, killing 14 and leaving around 225 injured.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu today promised to make “painful compromises” for peace with Palestinians but refused to agree any deal that threatened the country’s security or identity as a Jewish state.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today declared three days of mourning for the 15 people killed in mass protest marches toward Israel’s borders from Gaza, Syria and Lebanon.

PALESTINIAN leaders formally ended a four-year rift between secular Fatah and the Islamist Hamas at a ceremony in Egypt, a reconciliation their people see as crucial for their drive to set up an independent state.

Jerusalem approved more than 900 new apartments in a Jewish development in the city’s contested eastern sector today, threatening new friction ahead of a White House visit by the Israeli president.

Israel is coming under increasing US pressure to scrap the east Jerusalem building project which has sparked the most serious diplomatic feud in years.

Riot police and Muslim worshippers clashed during a protest in one of Jerusalem’s sacred areas today.

ISRAEL’S prime minister declared yesterday that his country would retain parts of the West Bank forever – a statement that infuriated Palestinians and could complicate the year-old peace mission of a visiting US envoy.

Israel’s prime minister today declared his country would retain parts of the West Bank forever – a statement sure to provoke Palestinians and complicate the year-old peace mission of a visiting US envoy.

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is dismissing US calls for a West Bank settlement freeze as unreasonable.

The militant Islamic Hamas group will accept Israel's right to exist, providing the Palestinian people agree, former US president Jimmy Carter said today.

SENIOR Israeli officials expressed support yesterday for the transfer of Arab parts of Jerusalem to Palestinian control, offering a concession on one of the most contentious issues in the Middle East conflict.

Three Egyptian brothers died in the explosion of a left-over land mine they were toying with near Egypt’s Suez Canal, hospital officials said today.

Arab League envoys paying a historic visit to Israel today said they were extending “a hand of peace” on behalf of the Arab world.

Gala celebrations will mark the 40th anniversary of the moment many Israelis see as their most glorious – the dramatic unification of Jerusalem under their control in the 1967 Middle East war.

Efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking will shift into higher gear in the coming week, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert travelling to Jordan and his foreign minister heading to Cairo to discuss a sweeping Arab peace proposal, an Israeli official said today.

Efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking will shift into higher gear in the coming week, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert travelling to Jordan and his foreign minister heading to Cairo to discuss a sweeping Arab peace proposal, an Israeli official said today.

Arab leaders opened a key summit today to relaunch a land-for-peace offer to Israel.

Anti-riot police scuffled with demonstrators in Cairo as Muslims marched in Jordan and Lebanon to express outrage over Israeli renovation work near Islam’s third-holiest shine.

The European Union intends to go all out to try reactivate the Middle East peace process in the first six months of this year, the EU’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Friday, warning that it was crucial to do so before the United States enters its campaign period for the 2008 presidential elections.

The UN Human Rights Council today passed two resolutions criticising Israel, but kept its record intact of singling out no other country for human rights abuses.

Arab nations have asked for a United Nations Security Council ministerial meeting next month to launch a new effort to settle all Arab-Israeli conflicts and restore peace to the Middle East.

Israel has modified the route of its West Bank separation barrier, moving forward with Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plan to quickly define the country’s final borders as his Kadima Party secured a parliamentary majority.

Israeli police raided the Hamas group’s election offices in east Jerusalem today.

CAMPAIGNING began yesterday for a Palestinian legislative election clouded by speculation that President Mahmoud Abbas, mired in conflict with Israel and facing a challenge from rival Islamists, could delay voting.

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that it was now the turn of the Palestinians to prove they want peace following Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Supreme Court today rejected an opinion by the International Court of Justice calling for the removal of Israel’s West Bank barrier, upholding the structure’s legality and also instructing the government to reroute a section to avoid encircling Palestinian villages.

President George Bush is seeking relief from record-high gas prices and support for Middle East peace as he opens his Texas ranch to Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer.

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday brushed off a warning from US President George W Bush not to allow further West Bank settlement growth, indicating Israel would continue to solidify its hold on areas it considers of strategic importance.

ISRAEL plans to build 3,500 new homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank to cement its hold on Jerusalem, government sources said yesterday, drawing Palestinian warnings that peace efforts were at risk.

ISRAEL'S Cabinet yesterday gave overwhelming approval to a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.

ISRAELIS and Palestinians far from yesterday's summit in Egypt expressed doubts whether a ceasefire declared by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Mahmoud Abbas could end four years of bloodshed.

Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas pledged in his first official campaign speech today to fulfill Palestinian dreams of statehood.