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Israeli authorities prevent Palestinians from entering Jerusalem from the West Bank to perform the first Friday prayers of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, on February 20, 2026. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli forces on Sunday evening forced worshippers out of a mosque in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem and prevented them from performing the Isha and Taraweeh prayers.
Local sources said troops entered Sheikh Lulu Mosque shortly before the call to the Isha prayer and forced worshipers to leave the place, and prevented prayers, including Tarawih prayers, in what was described as part of ongoing restrictions on places of worship.
The incident came as Al-Aqsa Mosque remained closed for a second consecutive day under what authorities described as a state of emergency. Strict closures were also imposed on the Old City and its entrances.
Since Saturday evening, Israeli authorities have completely shut Al-Aqsa Mosque and forced worshippers to leave immediately, citing the declaration of a state of emergency following Israel’s attack on Iran. The measures have further tightened restrictions on freedom of worship and movement in the city.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
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Israeli forces detain Palestinians following an explosion in Tulkarm, West Bank, on September 11, 2025. ( Nedal Eshtayah – Anadolu Agency )
Israel has arrested around 22,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, since the start of what has been described as a war of genocide, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoner’s Club.
The rights group said the figure covers all cases of arrest during this period, including those who remain in detention and those who were later released. It described the number as an unprecedented record for arrests over just two and a half years.
The Prisoner’s Club stressed that the total does not include arrests in the Gaza Strip, which it said amount to thousands, nor arrest campaigns in the territories occupied in 1948.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the group added that arrest operations in the West Bank are continuing at an increasing pace. It said that at least 40 Palestinians were arrested between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, including four women, one of them a child, as well as former prisoners.
The organisation said the arrest operations have been accompanied by what it described as serious and unprecedented violations. These include severe beatings, organised intimidation against detainees and their families, widespread damage to homes, and the seizure of vehicles, money and gold jewellery.
It also accused Israeli forces of destroying infrastructure, demolishing the homes of prisoners’ families, taking relatives hostage, using detainees as human shields, carrying out field executions, and using arrest campaigns as cover to expand settlements in the West Bank.
The Prisoner’s Club further stated that extensive field interrogations have affected thousands since the start of the war, adding that soldiers committed abuses during these interrogations which it said were no less serious than torture carried out in official detention and interrogation centres.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
President Donald Trump’s Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff makes a speech during the signing ceremony of the Peace Charter for Gaza as part of the 56th World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2026. [Harun Özalp – Anadolu Agency]
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is set to arrive in Israel on Saturday evening, accompanied by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, according to Israeli media.
Channel 12 reported that Witkoff and Kushner will arrive in Tel Aviv in preparation for a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Friday, Channel 12, citing unnamed sources, reported that Netanyahu is expected to meet Witkoff and Kushner in Jerusalem to discuss the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
The sources added that Israel’s security and political Cabinet will convene on Sunday to review developments related to the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday, Netanyahu’s office announced that the Cabinet would discuss early next week the issue of reopening the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
The crossing was scheduled to reopen in October as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which came into effect on Oct. 10, but Israel did not comply.
While Ali Shaath, head of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, announced that the Rafah crossing would reopen next week during a televised speech following the signing of the “Board of Peace” charter in Davos, the Israeli side has not confirmed this.
An Israeli official linked the reopening of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing to the recovery of the remains of their last captive from Gaza, said to belong to a police officer, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
The second phase of the agreement also stipulates the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian factions, an additional withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the launch of reconstruction efforts, which the United Nations estimates will cost about $70 billion.
The first phase included a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange involving the release of Israeli captives in return for Palestinian prisoners. However, Tel Aviv has continued to violate the agreement on a daily basis.
The Israeli army has killed more than 71,000 people, most of them women and children, and injured over 171,000 in a brutal offensive since October 2023 that left Gaza in ruins.
Despite a ceasefire that began Oct. 10, Israel has continued to carry out attacks, killing 481 Palestinians and wounding 1,313, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli forces are seen at Bab al-Rahmeh cemetery in East Jerusalem on 10 December, 2017 [Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency]
Israeli settlers vandalised several gravestones at an Islamic cemetery in occupied Jerusalem in the early hours of Monday, according to local sources.
Residents said a group of settlers stormed an Islamic cemetery near the Old City of Jerusalem, damaging and defacing a number of graves before leaving the area.
The attack comes amid repeated incidents targeting the Bab al-Rahma cemetery, located east of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Settlers vandalised gravestones at the cemetery twice earlier in 2025, according to local documentation.
Bab al-Rahma is one of the oldest and most significant Islamic cemeteries in Jerusalem, dating back around 1,400 years. It contains the graves of companions of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as fighters who took part in the historic conquest of Jerusalem during the eras of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab and later under Saladin.
Palestinian residents and religious authorities say the cemetery has been subjected to sustained Israeli violations, including attempts to seize parts of it. They warn that such actions aim to alter the cultural and religious character of the area and facilitate greater Israeli control over the Old City of Jerusalem and its surroundings, particularly the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Protesters gather in Tel Aviv on June 28, 2025. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]
Tens of thousands of people rallied across Israel on Saturday, calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, according to local media reports, Anadolu reported.
Demonstrations were held in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities, according to the Haaretz newspaper.
Protests followed a 12‑day conflict between Israel and Iran, which erupted June 13 when Tel Aviv launched airstrikes on Iranian military, nuclear and civilian sites, killing at least 606 victims and injuring 5,332, according to the Iranian Health Ministry.
Tehran launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes, killing at least 29 people and wounding more than 3,400 in Israel, according to figures released by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The conflict came to a halt under a US-sponsored ceasefire that took effect June 24.
On the heels of getting Tel Aviv and Tehran to sing a deal, US President Donald Trump said Friday that a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will be reached soon.
“I think it’s close,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked how close his administration is to a deal on a Gaza ceasefire.
Israeli officials expressed surprise Saturday at those remarks, affirming there are no indications of any change in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s positions, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
Hamas has repeatedly affirmed its readiness to release Israeli hostages “all at once” in exchange for an end to Israel’s genocidal war, the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
But Netanyahu, who is wanted by international justice officials, insists on partial deals and evades signing a deal by imposing new conditions, including the disarmament of Palestinian factions.
According to the Israeli opposition, Netanyahu currently insists on reoccupying Gaza to serve his political interests, particularly maintaining his hold on power.
Israeli officials estimate that Trump seeks to leverage the momentum following the end of the Israel-Iran confrontation to achieve an additional political accomplishment.
In May, the US president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff presented a proposal to Hamas that included the release of half of the living Israeli hostages and half of those killed within seven days of the start of a potential agreement, in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire.
Tel Aviv estimates that there are 50 Israeli hostages in Gaza, including 20 alive. There are more than 10,400 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons, suffering from torture, starvation and medical neglect, which has resulted in many deaths, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights and media reports.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing more than 56,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
