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Max Schrems has claimed €500 in damages each for the more than 25,000 signatories to his lawsuit

News in brief

A round-up of domestic and international news stories.

Israeli soldiers stand next to a car where a Palestinian woman tried to stab an Israeli and was shot dead

Three Palestinians, one Israeli killed in attacks

Three Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed after a series of attacks in the West Bank, the latest incidents in a nearly two-month wave of violence.

News • 22 Nov 15

The wave of violence has left 86 Palestinians dead as well as 15 Israelis

Four Israelis stabbed in 'terrorist attack'

Four Israelis were stabbed and wounded, one seriously, in the southern city of Kiryat Gat in what police described as a terrorist attack.

News • 21 Nov 15

Israeli security forces cordon off an area after a Palestinian stabbing attack in Jerusalem

Two Palestinians shot dead after separate attacks

A Palestinian was shot dead after attacking police at an Israeli checkpoint while another assailant was killed after carrying out a knife attack at a tram station.

News • 30 Oct 15

John Kerry has met Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin for talks

Kerry cautiously optimistic after Netanyahu talks

US Secretary of State John Kerry has said talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have given him a "cautious measure of optimism" that tensions between Israelis and Palestinians could be defused.

News • 22 Oct 15

Mr Ban said the unrest was undermining Palestinian hopes for statehood and Israel's longing for security

Palestinians and Israel are at 'dangerous abyss'

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged Palestinians and Israel to step back from a "dangerous abyss" as he arrived on a snap visit to the region at the head of international efforts to quell three weeks of violence.

News • 20 Oct 15

Palestinian officials describe roadblocks around Jerusalem as collective punishment

Israel rejects US claims of excessive force

Israel has rejected suggestions from the United States that it may have used excessive force to confront Palestinian stabbings.

News • 15 Oct 15

Israeli border guards at a crossing point into the West Bank

Netanyahu suspends Palestinian travel ban

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the suspension of a controversial measure banning Palestinians from riding the same buses as Jewish settlers when returning from Israel to the West Bank.

News • 20 May 15

Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to mount fresh legal action against Israel at the International Criminal Court

Abbas rejects Israel's transfer of tax funds

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has refused to accept hundreds of millions of dollars of taxes collected by Israel because money that Israel says it is owed for utilities has been deducted.

News • 06 Apr 15

Ban Ki-moon notified states that are party to the ICC of the decision yesterday

Ban accepts Palestinian ICC membership

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has accepted the request by Palestine to join the International Criminal Court, a move that would open the way for war crimes complaints against Israel.

News • 07 Jan 15

There were eight votes in favour of the Palestinian resolution, two votes against and five abstentions

UN Palestinian draft resolution defeated

A Palestinian draft resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territories by late 2017 has been defeated in the UN Security Council after failing to get sufficient votes in favour.

News • 30 Dec 14

The unity government was formed after an agreement between Hamas and Fatah in April

Palestinian ministers to visit Gaza from West Bank

Eight Palestinian unity government ministers are to travel to Gaza from its West Bank base tomorrow for only the second time since its formation in June, a minister has said.

Conflict • 28 Dec 14

The incident comes at a time of heightened tension between Palestinians and Israelis

Palestinian pours acid on group of Israelis

A Palestinian man threw a chemical substance believed to be acid at an Israeli family in the occupied West Bank today, injuring a man and four children, Israeli police and the military said.

News • 13 Dec 14

Ireland has joined 135 other countries in recognising Palestine as a state

Dáil agrees motion recognising Palestinian State

The Dáil has agreed a motion officially recognising the State of Palestine and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

News • 11 Dec 14

The compound had been closed to all visitors after shooting

Israel to partially reopen al-Aqsa

Israel has decided to partially reopen Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound to Muslims from tomorrow, hours after ordering its closure and following Arab and US calls.

News • 30 Oct 14

Fianna Fáil senator Averil Power tabled the motion

Seanad calls on Government to recognise Palestine

The Seanad has passed a motion calling on the Government to reognise the state of Palestine.

News • 22 Oct 14

Vote saw MPs urge the government to 'recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel'

MPs in symbolic vote on Palestine

British MPs have backed the recognition of the state of Palestine alongside Israel in an historic symbolic vote in the House of Commons.

News • 13 Oct 14

The Swedish government, pictured, said it would recognise the state of Palestine

Swedish plan to recognise Palestine criticised

Israel has described a plan by Sweden's new centre-left government to recognise the state of Palestine as being ill-considered in the absence of Middle East peace negotiations.

News • 05 Oct 14

Israeli air strikes and shelling killed three Palestinians in Gaza

72-hour ceasefire under way between Hamas & Israel

A fresh 72-hour ceasefire in Gaza has begun on the 33rd day of a conflict between Israel and Hamas that has killed more than 2,000 people.

News • 11 Aug 14

A Palestinian boy walks on the rubble of his destroyed home in Gaza City

Gaza conflict in numbers

As talks continue on extending the truce in Gaza, here are some of the figures from the conflict so far.

Special Reports • 07 Aug 14

Ron Dermer compared Hamas rocket fire on Israel to Germany's bombardment of London in WWII

Israel deserves Nobel prize for restraint - Dermer

Israeli soldiers should be given the Nobel Peace Prize for the "unimaginable restraint" they are showing in fighting Hamas, Israel's ambassador to the US has said.

News • 22 Jul 14

Militants have fired 520 mortar rounds and rockets that struck Israel

Israeli army warn Gazans to leave homes for safety

The Israeli army has warned Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip to "leave their homes for their own safety".

News • 12 Jul 14

Israeli soldier numbers have been increased along Gaza Strip lines

Israel adds to forces near border with Gaza

Israel has increased its forces along its frontier with the Gaza Strip and launched air strikes against militant Hamas targets there in response to Palestinian cross-border rocket attacks.

News • 03 Jul 14

A Palestinian woman gestures to a member of Palestinian security forces after protesters were asked to stop a demonstration to express solidarity with prisoners on hunger strike

Palestinian prisoners end hunger strikes

Scores of Palestinians on hunger-strike have ended their protest against detention without trial after winning limited concessions from Israel but no major change of policy.

News • 25 Jun 14

Various branches of Christianity prayed together inside the centuries-old structure

Pope makes peace plea during Bethlehem visit

Pope Francis made a surprise stop at the wall Palestinians abhor as a symbol of Israeli oppression, and later invited presidents from both sides of the divide to the Vatican to pray for peace.

News • 25 May 14