A driver has rammed his car into pedestrians in Jerusalem injuring several people in an attack mirroring similar incidents last year, Israeli police have said. The incident took place outside an Israeli border police station on the line separating West and occupied East Jerusalem.

“Speaking on Monday to the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to lighten the mood over the fierce controversy around the speech he was to deliver to Congress the following day. ‘You know, never has so much been written about a speech that hasn’t been given,'” writes Matthew Duss. “To which I offer in response: Never has one man complained so much about a deal that hasn’t yet been agreed.”

“During his previous tenure as prime minister, Netanyahu sent his confidant to negotiate with Palestinians and offered land swaps along the 1967 lines and limited right of return; Netanyahu’s office denies any such deal,” writes Nahum Barnea.

U.S. President Barack Obama wants to make a renewed effort to achieve progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in the nearly two years he has left in office, senior White House officials told Haaretz.

In an interview with Ari Shavit in Ha’aretz, Isaac Herzog, the leader of Israel’s Labor party, said that he would seek a deal with the Palestinians if elected prime minister.

If the March 17 election were held now, the Zionist Union would beat the Likud, 24 Knesset seats to 22, the poll found. In last week’s survey, the Zionist Union received 25 seats and Likud 23.

Much attention has been given to the Jewish-Arab Hadash party’s unification with the Arab parties, which are running in the current election under the name the “Joint List” (not the Arab Joint List, as much of the Israeli press is reporting). Even if this was done in order to ensure the parties pass the election threshold, it has turned into a major force on the Israeli political map, joining together communists, nationalists, Islamists, Arabs and Jews.

The PLO’s Central Council has adopted several major resolutions during its 27th meeting over the past two days, including a decision to recommend suspending security coordination with Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli officials told the Times of Israel that security coordination had not yet ceased.

Last month Gaza was rocked by a series of attacks targeting mainly Fatah officials, but also Hamas affiliates. Security forces in the Gaza Strip made several arrests in response to the spate of attacks in the coastal territory.

In the second half of last year, there were 51 instances of torture reported, compared to eight in the first half of 2014.

“The number of work permits the Israeli army gives to Palestinian workers nearly tripled, a new Bank of Israel report reveals. Did all those people suddenly become less dangerous, or do the permits serve interests other than security?” asks Haggai Matar.

Two cars were torched and spray-painted with racist slogans in a Palestinian village northwest of Ramallah early Thursday morning, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported. Residents of the village say they have filed more than 70 complaints to police about settler attacks.

Palestinian farmers in the Gaza Strip are struggling to recover from the 51-day war between Israel and Palestinian armed groups that ended with a ceasefire in late August 2014.

The Gaza Strip’s sole power plant was shut down on Wednesday evening as Qatari-donated fuel supplies finally ran out, a Gaza power authority said.