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Israeli Police Clash with Palestinians as East Jerusalem Tensions Flare During Ramadan

Israeli police officers walk during clashes with Palestinian protesters, as the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan continues, in Jerusalem, April 24, 2021. (Reuters)
Israeli police officers walk during clashes with Palestinian protesters, as the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan continues, in Jerusalem, April 24, 2021. (Reuters)
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Israeli Police Clash with Palestinians as East Jerusalem Tensions Flare During Ramadan

Israeli police officers walk during clashes with Palestinian protesters, as the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan continues, in Jerusalem, April 24, 2021. (Reuters)
Israeli police officers walk during clashes with Palestinian protesters, as the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan continues, in Jerusalem, April 24, 2021. (Reuters)

East Jerusalem was on edge just after midnight on Saturday as Palestinians faced off with Israeli police in nightly Ramadan clashes that sparked rocket fire by militants in the Gaza Strip and protests in Palestinian towns across the occupied West Bank.

Tension is higher than usual in the holy city following protests on Thursday by Palestinian youth angered with curbs on gathering during the Muslim holy month and by Israelis enraged by recent Palestinian street attacks on religious Jews.

Police mostly succeeded in keeping the demonstrators apart on Thursday, with many of the far-right Israeli participants chanting "Death to Arabs".

But the arrests and injuries raised tensions that spilled over into Friday night and early Saturday, when Palestinian youths again gathered outside the walled Old City and scuffled with hundreds of police in riot gear.

Palestinians pelted stones towards police firing water cannons. Others hurled rocks at an Israeli court building and smashed security cameras.

The Palestine Red Crescent said eight Palestinians had been injured Friday night in clashes with police, with two taken to hospital for treatment.

Jerusalem is at the core of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Palestinians seek to make East Jerusalem capital of a future state in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel claims the whole city, including its eastern sector captured in a 1967 war, as its capital.

Three rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel on Friday night, Israel's military said, soon after Gaza's Hamas rulers and other militants there issued a joint call for Palestinian resistance in Jerusalem.

Two of the rockets exploded near the Israel-Gaza frontier, the military said, and the third was intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome system. There were no reports of injuries.

In the West Bank, Palestinian youth clashed with Israeli troops around military checkpoints near multiple West Bank cities.

Clashes and incidents of violence have occurred nightly in Jerusalem - a city holy to Muslims, Christians and Jews - since the start of Ramadan on April 13.

Palestinians say police have tried to prevent them from holding their usual Ramadan evening gatherings outside Damascus Gate by erecting metal barriers in its amphitheater-style plaza.

Israelis have been incensed by videos on social media showing Palestinian youth striking or otherwise assaulting religious Jews in the city.

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Arab World

UN Palestinian Refugee Agency Says Demolished HQ Set on Fire

A photograph shows machinery demolishing a structure inside the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on January 20, 2026. (AFP)
A photograph shows machinery demolishing a structure inside the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on January 20, 2026. (AFP)
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UN Palestinian Refugee Agency Says Demolished HQ Set on Fire

A photograph shows machinery demolishing a structure inside the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on January 20, 2026. (AFP)
A photograph shows machinery demolishing a structure inside the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on January 20, 2026. (AFP)

The United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees said Sunday that its partially demolished headquarters in east Jerusalem was set on fire.

The agency, UNRWA, did not offer details on the cause of the incident at their premises, which Israeli authorities seized and began dismantling last week after banning the organization from operating in the country in 2025.

"After having been stormed and demolished by the Israeli authorities, the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem has now been set on fire," the agency said in a statement.

It described the blaze as part of an "ongoing attempt to dismantle the status of Palestine Refugees".

The fire and rescue service said early Sunday that it had responded to a call at the facility, where it was working to "extinguish the blaze and prevent it from spreading", also without offering a cause.

The UN had slammed last week's seizure and demolitions, and UNRWA insisted that its property remained protected by the privileges and immunities of the UN, a view it repeated on Sunday.

"Like any UN Member State anywhere in the world, without exception, Israel is legally obliged to protect and respect UN facilities," UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler told AFP on Sunday.

UNRWA was created specifically for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced during the creation of Israel in 1948, and provides refugee status registration and health and education services.

Its compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem has been empty of staff since January 2025, when the law banning its operations took effect.

Israel accuses UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas, and a series of investigations found "neutrality-related issues" at the agency but held that Israel had not provided conclusive evidence.

UNRWA still operates in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Arab World

Israel Agrees to ‘Limited Reopening’ of Rafah Crossing

24 November 2023, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: A view of the Rafah border crossing. (dpa)
24 November 2023, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: A view of the Rafah border crossing. (dpa)
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Israel Agrees to ‘Limited Reopening’ of Rafah Crossing

24 November 2023, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: A view of the Rafah border crossing. (dpa)
24 November 2023, Palestinian Territories, Rafah: A view of the Rafah border crossing. (dpa)

Israel said Monday it would allow a "limited reopening" of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt once it had recovered the remains of the last hostage in the Palestinian territory.

Reopening Rafah, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza, forms part of a truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump in October, but the crossing has remained closed since Israeli forces took control of it during the war in the Palestinian territory.

Visiting US envoys had reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing during talks in Jerusalem over the weekend.

World leaders and aid agencies have repeatedly pushed for more humanitarian convoys to be able to access Gaza, which has been left devastated by more than two years of war and depends on the inflow of essential medical equipment, food and other supplies.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Monday that Israel had agreed to a reopening "for pedestrian passage only, subject to a full Israeli inspection mechanism".

The move would depend on "the return of all living hostages and a 100% effort by Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages", it said on X.

The Israeli military said it was searching a cemetery in the Gaza Strip on Sunday for the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili.

Netanyahu's office said: "Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah Crossing."

The announcement came after Gaza's newly appointed administrator, Ali Shaath, said the crossing would open "in both directions" this week.

"For Palestinians in Gaza, Rafah is more than a gate, it is a lifeline and a symbol of opportunity," Shaath said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.

Israeli media had also reported that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had urged Netanyahu to reopen Rafah during their Jerusalem talks.

- Last hostage -

A spokesman for Hamas's Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, said on Sunday that the group had "provided mediators with all the details and information in our possession regarding the location of the captive's body", referring to Gvili.

Obeida added that "the enemy (Israel) is currently searching one of the sites based on information transmitted by the Al-Qassam Brigades".

Except for Gvili, all of the 251 people taken hostage during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel have since been returned, whether living or dead.

A non-commissioned officer in the Israeli police's elite Yassam unit, Gvili was killed in action on the day of the attack and his body taken to Gaza.

The first phase of the US-backed ceasefire deal had stipulated that Hamas hand over all the hostages in Gaza.

Gvili's family has expressed strong opposition to launching the second phase of the plan, which includes reopening Rafah, before they have received his remains.

"First and foremost, Ran must be brought home," his family said in a statement on Sunday.

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.

The Israeli retaliation flattened much of Gaza, home to about 2.2 million people, a territory that was already suffering severely from previous rounds of fighting and from an Israeli blockade imposed since 2007.

In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there.

Arab World

Israel Says Searching for Remains of Last Hostage at Northern Gaza Cemetery

Israelis light the 8th candle of Hannukah in Hostage Square holding placards bearing the face of Ran Gvili in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2025, as they call for the return of his remains. (AFP)
Israelis light the 8th candle of Hannukah in Hostage Square holding placards bearing the face of Ran Gvili in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2025, as they call for the return of his remains. (AFP)
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Israel Says Searching for Remains of Last Hostage at Northern Gaza Cemetery

Israelis light the 8th candle of Hannukah in Hostage Square holding placards bearing the face of Ran Gvili in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2025, as they call for the return of his remains. (AFP)
Israelis light the 8th candle of Hannukah in Hostage Square holding placards bearing the face of Ran Gvili in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2025, as they call for the return of his remains. (AFP)

Israeli forces were searching a cemetery in Gaza for the remains of Ran Gvili, the last hostage still held in the Palestinian territory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Sunday.

The announcement came shortly after Hamas's armed wing said in a statement that it had provided information on the location of the slain police officer's body.

"The operation is taking place at a cemetery in northern Gaza and involves extensive search efforts, making full use of all available intelligence. This effort will continue for as long as necessary," Netanyahu's office said.

The Israeli military confirmed troops were engaged in a "targeted operation in the area of the Yellow Line in northern Gaza to retrieve the body" of Gvili.

Under a US-brokered ceasefire that came into effect on October 10, Israeli forces have withdrawn to positions in Gaza behind the so-called "Yellow Line", though they remain in control of more than half of the territory.

Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas's Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, had said on Sunday that the group "provided mediators with all the details and information in our possession regarding the location of the captive's body".

Obeida added in his Telegram post that "the enemy (Israel) is currently searching one of the sites based on information transmitted by the Al-Qassam Brigades".

All of the 251 people taken hostage during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war have since been returned, both living and dead, except for Gvili.

A non-commissioned officer in the Israeli police's elite Yassam unit, Gvili was killed in action on the day of the attack and his body taken to Gaza.