A Palestinian man rammed his car into a crowded train platform in east Jerusalem today.

Israel has broken off Middle East peace talks and brought the US-brokered process to the brink of collapse.

Monique Walsh (Letters, Nov 5) illustrates the value of factual, rational debate, but only because her response is a series of omissions and gross misrepresentation.

Israeli and Palestinian officials will meet soon in Washington to work out final details on relaunching Mideast peace negotiations for the first time in five years, US Secretary of State John Kerry said.

A United Nations human rights body has accused Israeli forces of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields.

A senior Israeli official has accused Google of setting back Middle East peace hopes by putting “Palestine” under the banner of its search page for the Palestinian territories.

IF Miko Peled’s life were fiction, it might be mistaken for fantasy: a staunch Zionist, Israeli Special Forces commando and son of a famous army general becomes an Arab-loving peace activist and champion of Palestinian rights.

Israel’s approval of 3,000 new homes on occupied territory has drawn sharp condemnation from European allies with at least three governments summoning ambassadors over an action they say undermines an already troubled peace process.

The Israeli military has fired a missile into Syria, the first time Israel has been drawn into the fighting in the neighbouring country.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has outraged Palestinian leaders after declaring that Israeli culture allowed it to be more economically successful.

Israeli forces are on high alert ahead of expected mass demonstrations as Palestinians prepared for a day of marches throughout the region.

BRITAIN’S deputy prime minister accused Israel yesterday of carrying out “deliberate vandalism” by continuing to build settlements on land Palestinians hope will form part of a future state.

THE Security Council took its first official step yesterday to consider the Palestinians’ request for UN membership.

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 negotiators denied offering a compromise over two of the toughest issues, Jerusalem and refugees, during peace talks with Israel in 2008.

Work has begun on up to 600 new homes in West Bank settlements since Israel lifted its curb on such construction, a senior settler official said.

Israel’s prime minister has cautioned Palestinians against taking unilateral action in their efforts to establish an independent state, saying only direct talks could bring peace to the region.

The Palestinian president is leaving the door open to continuing peace negotiations with Israel – even if the Jewish state resumes settlement construction in the West Bank.

Israel has today issued an “urgent” warning to its citizens to leave Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula immediately.

US Vice-President Joe Biden told Palestinian leaders yesterday Washington will hold accountable any side that hurts peace prospects, pointedly citing Israel’s settlement expansion plans.

Israel’s new plan to build 1,600 apartments for Jews in Palestinian-claimed east Jerusalem overshadowed US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to the West Bank today.

America is sending its first ambassador to Syria since 2005 in a sign relations are thawing between the countries.

Israeli authorities broke up a series of Palestinian cultural events as part of a crackdown in Jerusalem, disrupting a children’s march and bursting balloons at a school celebration.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised personal involvement in stalled Middle East peace efforts today as she criticised Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem.

ISRAEL has confirmed plans to build 1,300 more apartments in east Jerusalem, immediately drawing the ire of Palestinians who accused it of sabotaging already rocky peace efforts.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to begin tackling the core issues of a final peace agreement in a last-minute push to breathe life into stalled negotiations before US president George Bush's arrival in the Middle East today.

Talks are being held today by Israeli and Palestinian leaders today in a bid to determine the future of a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Iranian president had expressed support for a 2002 Arab peace initiative during talks with Saudi officials, it was reported today.

WHAT the recent letters to your paper defending Israel have in common is an obsession with effects and a refusal to deal with causes.

Israeli forces entered deep into the Gaza Strip early today for the first time since Israel’s summer withdrawal from the coastal area.

THE Palestinians’ incoming prime minister suggested Hamas could one day make peace with Israel, but undercut his statement by saying his militant group wouldn’t disarm or recognise Israel unless it recognised a Palestinian state within boundaries the Israelis reject.

THE last Israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip yesterday staged a tearful farewell procession past deserted homes, then left in convoys of armoured buses for Israel, ending a turbulent presence that critics have long denounced as a stumbling block to peace.

ISRAELI opinion has swung back in favour of evacuating the occupied Gaza Strip and away from pro-settler radicals who clashed with troops and blocked roads during a week of turmoil, a newspaper poll showed yesterday.

ISRAEL yesterday welcomed a temporary truce declared by Palestinian militants and promised to hold its fire in return, but demanded that the Palestinian Authority eventually dismantle the armed groups.

Jordan’s King Abdullah has proposed a new peace strategy that drops traditional Arab demands that Israel give up all land seized in the 1967 war and offers the Jewish state normalised relations with Arab countries.

THE Israeli military is willing to suspend operations against Palestinian militants if they call off attacks, Israeli leaders said yesterday, signalling a shift in position that could help pave the way toward a ceasefire after more than four years of fighting.

Israel’s parliament moved to give generous compensation packages to 8,800 Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank for leaving their homes, in a boost for prime minister Ariel Sharon’s fight to withdraw from Gaza after nearly 40 years of occupation.

EVERY time Nisreen Hurub needs kidney dialysis, she has to take a long and painful detour to hospital around Israel's West Bank barrier.

President Bush has urged Israel to withdraw from territory captured in the 1967 Mideast war and to turn the land over to the Palestinians for a state.

THREE key ministers have spurned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s appeal to help shore up sagging support for his Gaza pull-out plan in a crucial party referendum, political sources said yesterday.

The United States is handling the case of two Arab residents of Jerusalem who were kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents, Israeli officials said in Jerusalem.