Here is a summary of the key issues that have bogged down eight-months of intensive U.S. efforts to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

The talks are currently scheduled to end on April 29, although Washington is hoping to extend the process into 2015.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas signed a request to join several U.N. agencies on Tuesday, in a move that could derail a U.S. push to revive faltering peace talks with Israel.

"The Palestinian leadership has unanimously approved a decision to seek membership of 15 U.N. agencies and international treaties, beginning with the Fourth Geneva Convention," Abbas said on television after signing the demand during a meeting at his Ramallah headquarters.

Israel and the United States are discussing a possible deal which could secure the release of U.S.-born Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard as a way of salvaging the crisis-hit peace talks.

According to two separate sources close to the talks, Pollard's release is being discussed in the context of efforts to secure an extension of the peace talks with the Palestinians, although no decision has yet been made.

Palestinians and Arab Israelis commemorated on Sunday Land Day with rallies remembering six of their number who were shot dead during a 1976 demonstration against land seizure.

In the northern Israeli town of Arraba, thousands of people turned out for the main demonstration, many waving Palestinian flags, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

Israeli police used force on Saturday to break up a Palestinian protest march in occupied east Jerusalem, injuring several people including two journalists, news photographers said.

Several demonstrators and four journalists -- among them a photographer from Agence France-Presse and another from Reuters -- were slightly injured by projectiles fired by police during the incident, near the walled Old City's Damascus Gate.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday as he sought to rescue his faltering Middle East peace bid, amid fears Israel may scrap plans to free Palestinian prisoners.

Flying in to Jordan from an interrupted visit to Rome, he first held talks with King Abdullah II as he pressed his bid to "continue to narrow the gaps" between the two sides, his spokeswoman said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened Tuesday to seek a court order forcing ministry staff, who have been on strike since Sunday, back to work.

Lieberman, who has been locked out of his own office at the ministry, told a news conference in parliament he was examining "the possibility" of obtaining back-to-work orders.

Palestinian leaders threatened Tuesday to renew their diplomatic push at the United Nations if Israel fails to free Arab prisoners as scheduled this weekend.

When U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace resumed in July, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas agreed that, during their nine-month duration, he would shelve efforts to use the U.N.'s November 2012 recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer to press for membership in international bodies where it could fight Israeli occupation.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas warned Saturday of action if Israel failed to release the fourth and final batch of veteran prisoners as agreed under a U.S.-backed deal.

"We are awaiting the release of the fourth batch of prisoners, as agreed upon with the Israelis through the United States," he told members of the central committee of his Fatah movement.

Three Palestinians were killed in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank early on Saturday after Israeli soldiers launched an operation to arrest a militant, Palestinian officials said.

Medical and security sources said two of those killed were militants and the third was a civilian. They said 14 Palestinians were also wounded, with two in critical condition.