Israel

Israeli police said they have lifted age restrictions for the main weekly prayers at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Oct. 23, for the first time in weeks.

Germany on Oct. 21 stressed its inherent responsibility for  the Holocaust, after Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu stirred controversy by claiming that a Palestinian leader gave Hitler the idea of exterminating Jews.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who hosted Netanyahu for talks Wednesday, stressed: "Germany abides by its responsibility for the Holocaust."  

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council on Oct. 21 that he was "not optimistic" following his talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to urge them to defuse tensions, diplomats said.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is being sued in the United States over his nation's deadly raid of an aid flotilla that tried to break Israel's blockade of Gaza in 2010.

The Turkish parents of 19-year-old Furkan Do?an, who was among 10 killed in the raid, sued Barak in federal court in Los Angeles on Oct. 16, claiming unlawful death and torture. 

One hummus cafe in central Israel put clashes aside and decided to offer 50% discounts to Jews and Arabs who sit together. The Hummus Bar at the M Mall in Kfar Vitkin wrote this message on its Facebook page:

The translated message:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under fire for suggesting that a World War II-era Palestinian leader convinced the Nazis to adopt their Final Solution to exterminate European Jews.
     

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will brief the Security Council on Oct. 21 on his trip to the Middle East where he is seeking to defuse weeks of violence, diplomats said.

An Eritrean migrant, shot by a security guard and kicked by an angry Israeli crowd that mistook him for a gunman, was identified on Oct. 19 as one of the dead from an attack on a bus station in the southern city of Beersheba. 

Israel was to voice its opposition Oct. 19 to French proposals to send international observers to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the latest in a diplomatic push to quell fears over a full-blown Palestinian uprising.

Israel and the United States have resumed talks on future defence aid that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended in protest at the Iran nuclear deal, the Israeli ambassador to Washington said on Oct. 18.