Category: Holy sites

Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, under armed security by the Israeli police, on Wednesday, ahead of the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av. Tisha B’Av notably commemorates the…

Groups of extremist Israeli settlers, early Monday, stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the occupied holy city of Jerusalem, a Palestinian source confirmed to Al Ray. The General Director of the Islamic…

A group of Israeli Jewish feminists called the ‘Women of the Wall’ held their monthly prayer service at the ‘Western Wall’ in Jerusalem on Friday, and were assaulted by a…

The General Convention of the Episcopal Church, with more than 3 million members, has voted to divest from companies involved in Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights. The Episcopal Peace Fellowship Palestine…

Three Israeli extremist lawmakers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Monday, provoking Muslim devotees, Palestinian media reported.   According to Al Ray, the provocative tour came a week after Israeli…

Two Israeli ministers, on Sunday morning, stormed the court yards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s decision to allow the entry of Israeli ministers and Knesset…

Scores of Israeli settlers, during the early hours of Monday, broke into courtyards of al-Aqsa Mosque compound, via the Mughrabi Gate, under heavy protection of Israeli occupation police.   Jerusalemite…

Photo credit: Christian Peacemaker Teams. POSTED BY: CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAMS JUNE 29, 2018 Descriptions of Palestinian life and Israeli occupation in the West Bank city of Hebron. Humiliation NOT pictured here: A…

Israeli forces demolished Palestinian agricultural and commercial buildings in the Hizma neighborhood of Jerusalem, Monday morning. Witnesses told Ma’an News Agency that Israeli forces, escorting staff from the Israeli Jerusalem…

Dozens of extremist Jewish settlers, early Thursday, stormed the compounds of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in military occupied Jerusalem, Palestinian sources reported.   The General Director of the Islamic Awqaf and…

King Abdullah of Jordan stated, Thursday, that there can be no peace or stability in the region without establishing an independent Palestinian State, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living…

Israeli soldiers installed, Tuesday, another monitoring post near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in occupied East Jerusalem. The new monitoring tower, in Bab al-‘Amoud (Damascus Gate) area, overlooks several locations, including the…

The Islamic Christian Commission for the Support of Jerusalem and Holy Sites has warned of a draft law for a project which allows the Israeli occupation government to confiscate land…

Israeli soldiers installed, Monday, a monitoring post on the rooftop of Bab ar-Rahma Hall, in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in occupied East Jerusalem. Firas ad-Dibis, the head of the Waqf…

Laylat al-Qadr in Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, June 12, 2018. Photo credit: Ayman Nobani for WAFA. POSTED BY: AHMAD JARADAT JUNE 15, 2018 One group of settlers attempted to invade the compound.…

Stun grenades were fired and many Palestinians denied entry as thousands gathered at Qalandia checkpoint, south of Ramallah, on their way to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque today, the last Friday of…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) for the week of 31 May – 06 June, 2018. Israeli forces continued to use force against Palestinian…

Shuafat refugee camp, August 28, 2004. Photo credit: Hozifa Sorour for WAFA. POSTED BY: AHMAD JARADAT JUNE 7, 2018 Israel is cited as maintaining the largest open-air prison in the world in…

On July 6th , Mayor of Bethlehem Anton Salman met with the Mayor of Paphos, Phedonas Phedonas, in the presence of the Municipal Council Member Shireen Bandak-Mauge, and, from the Mayor’s office, Ikram…

Israeli soldiers invaded, Tuesday, the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in occupied East Jerusalem, assaulted many worshipers and abducted fifteen young men. Eyewitnesses said dozens of Palestinians were siting and…

Officers of Israel’s Nature And Parks Authority (INPA) reportedly resumed excavation work on Sunday, at the Palestinian Bab-al-Rahma cemetery, just outside the walls of the Old City in occupied East…

Groups of Israeli settlers, on Sunday morning, stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, under heavy protection of Israeli police. The move was seen, by the elders of the mosque,…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) for the week of 24 – 30 May, 2018. Israeli forces continued to use excessive force against Palestinian…

Silwan/City of David. Photo credit: Emek Shaveh. POSTED BY: COREY SHERMAN MAY 31, 2018 The Ministry of Culture earmarks $17 million to expand archeological excavations in East Jerusalem. This month, the Israeli…

Photo credit: Emek Shaveh. POSTED BY: AMALYA DUBROVSKY MAY 30, 2018 Throughout May, the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority has been hard at work confiscating Bab al-Rahmah Cemetery in East Jerusalem. Following…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) for the week of 17 – 23 May, 2018. Israeli forces continued to use lethal force against peaceful…

RAMALLAH, May 22, 2018 (By The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) – Referral of the situation in Palestine to the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a national obligation in…

Some 60,000 Muslim worshipers from occupied East Jerusalem and Arab towns across Israel, on Friday, prayed at Al-Aqsa Mosque  in Jerusalem, to mark the start of Ramadan, WAFA correspondence reports.…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), for the week of 10 – 16 May, 2018. Israeli forces continued to use appallingly lethal force against…

by Amal Ahmad, Irene Calis, Haidar Eid, Razi Nabulse, for the  Al Shabaka Palestinian Policy Network. May 15, 2018 The Palestinian people have perhaps never been more in need of a forward-looking vision to shape…

Just a day after mass Israeli bloodshed in Gaza, the Palestinians are marking the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (Catastrophe), when the Tel Aviv regime forced them out of their…

WAFA reported that members of the Israeli terror group, “Price Tag”, on Monday, vandalized more than 28 Palestinian-owned cars and spray-painted racist slogans in Hebrew, on walls of Palestinian homes…

Jordan has denounced, in the strongest terms, the ongoing Israeli violations and provocations against Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. Israeli extremists, early Sunday, broke into the mosque’s compound in occupied…

Israeli soldiers attacked, Friday, dozens of Palestinians nonviolent protesting in Bab ar-Rahma historic Islamic graveyard, where the Jerusalem City Council dug many graves, by the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and denouncing the…

Israeli intelligence officers handed, on Thursday evening, an order preventing the head of the Higher Islamic Committee and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, from entering the West Bank for four months.…

Update: The army released Aya Abu Naab, on Saturday evening, after issuing an order preventing her from enter Al-Aqsa Mosque, for one one. Israeli soldiers abducted, Saturday, a young Palestinian…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), for the week of 26 April – 02 May, 2018. Israeli forces continued to directly target peaceful protests…

Israeli occupation forces detained, on Tuesday evening, the minister of al-Aqsa Mosque and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, in front of his home in occupied Jerusalem,…

For the fourth consecutive day, Israeli forces continue to attack the centuries-old Bab Al-Rahma Islamic cemetery near Al-Aqsa mosque, by digging up graves of Palestinians. According to the PNN, WAFA…

Dima Al-Samman is a contemporary Palestinian-Jerusalemite novelist. She was born and raised in occupied Jerusalem and earned her bachelor’s degree in linguistics from Birzeit University. Further studies saw her gain…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) for the week of 19 – 25 April 2018. Israeli forces continued to directly target peaceful protests that…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) for the week of 12 – 18 April, 2018. Israeli forces continued to directly target peaceful protests that…

Israeli soldiers abducted, earlier Wednesday, a Palestinian guard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem and summoned four others for interrogation. Media sources in Jerusalem said the soldiers abducted the…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) for the week of 05 – 11 April, 2018. Israeli forces continued to directly target peaceful protests along…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) for the week of 29 March – 04 April, 2018. The Bloodiest Week After 2014 Offensive on the…

Hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed Joseph’s Tomb, on Thursday at dawn, in Nablus city, north of West Bank, guarded by Israeli forces under the pretext of performing Talmudic rituals and…

Dozens of settlers, guarded by intensive police forces, stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, on Sunday morning. Jerusalemite sources reported that 275 settlers stormed the mosque via The Moroccan…

Palestinian Christians living in the Gaza Strip are being denied access to Jerusalem, by Israel, during Holy Week and the Easter weekend. Worship at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,…

Israeli authorities, Monday, declared that a closure will be imposed on the West Bank and Gaza for eight days, over the Jewish Passover holiday, starting Thursday and lasting until midnight,…

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement strongly denouncing the attack carried out by Israeli police officers against Palestinian Christians, celebrating Plan Sunday, in occupied Jerusalem, for “raising…

Ukrainian Yuri Vladigier was crowned at the 6th Palestine International Marathon, held Friday, in Bethlehem . The marathon, which took place in front of the Church of the Nativity, in…

Israeli colonial settlers stormed, on Wednesday morning, the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, while Israeli police arrested one of its guards from his workplace, inside the mosque. Jerusalemite sources reported, according…

Israeli soldiers, on Monday morning, stormed the Mujahideen Islamic Cemetery in the Sahira Gate area, on Salah al-Din Street in Jerusalem, and destroyed a number of Palestinian graves. PNN sources…

Israeli soldiers abducted, on Monday at noon, a young Palestinian man who was praying in the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in occupied East Jerusalem, and took them to an…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) for the week of 28 February – 06 March 2018. Soldiers killed a Palestinian farmer east of Khan…

During its 330 kilometer hike that starts from Jenin, northern West Bank, to Hebron in the south, tourism experts have called on adopting Masar Ibrahim’s Thru Hike as a national…

On 25 February 2018, the Patriarchs and Heads of Local Churches in Jerusalem announced the closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem as a measure of protest…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) for the week of 22 – 27 February, 2018. Israeli forces killed a Palestinian civilian while arresting him…

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher reopened its doors, as the Israeli Prime Minister, along with the Mayor of West Jerusalem Israeli municipality, Nir Barkat, said they will “formulate a…

Groups associated with the reconstruction of the alleged historic Temple Mount have called on supporters to widely take part in the intensive break-ins to al-Aqsa Mosque over the next two…

Israeli occupation authorities, on Sunday, said that there will be a security cordon on the West Bank and Gaza for four days, on the occurrence of the Jewish holiday of “Purim”.…

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) denounced the latest Israeli decision targeting churches and their property in occupied Jerusalem, and said that…

Jerusalem’s Christian leaders, Sunday, decided to close the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in the old City of Jerusalem, in protest of Israel’s tax policy and a proposed land appropriation…

Hebron marks, on Sunday, 24 years since the Ibrahimi mosque massacre took place, when an Israeli settler opened fire at Muslims observing the dawn prayers on a Ramadan morning, killing…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), for the week of 15 – 21 February, 2018. Israeli forces killed 2 children and wounded 2 others…

The family of a young Palestinian man from occupied Jerusalem has reported, Monday, that their son suffered moderate wounds, last Wednesday, when a group of extremist Israeli colonizers attacked him…

by Zena Agha on February 18, 2018, for the Al Shabaka Palestinian Policy Network. Since 1967, Israel has sought to limit Palestinian power, ownership, and habitation in the Jerusalem area on the one hand,…

Extremist Israeli settlers, backed by Israeli special forces and rapid intervention troops, continued on Wednesday morning with ritual intrusions into the courtyards of al-Aqsa Mosque compound, via the Moroccan gate.…

Israeli authorities have completed the construction of a watchtower checkpoint at the entrance of Damascus Gate, the main gate into the Muslim Quarter of occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. The…

Palestinian medical sources have reported, on Wednesday evening, that a young Palestinian man suffered serious wounds after being attacked by extremist Israeli colonists, while leaving the al-Aqsa Mosque, in occupied…

Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed, on Sunday morning, the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, under protection of Israeli police. Sources from Jerusalem said that about 49 settlers broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque…

The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced, on Friday, that it had unearthed a Byzantine-era cemetery near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank. In a statement, the ministry said…

The Israeli government has begun construction of a new place for male and female Jews to pray at Al-Buraq Wall, adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israeli media reported on Tuesday, according…

Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem has said that all conspiracies against Jerusalem will fail, stressing that US policy regarding the eMiddle East is “ugly.” “The history, heritage,…

Israeli settlers, on Sunday morning, again stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, amid heavy security procedures. Jerusalemite sources said, according to Al Ray, that 19 settlers stormed…

As U.S. Vice President and Christian Zionist Mike Pence visited Jerusalem Tuesday, Palestinian stores and businesses across the city and across the West Bank were shuttered to protest the Vice…

The Orthodox Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem, Nourhan Manougian, arrived on Thursday at Manager Square in Bethlehem, heading a procession of Armenian clergy and notables, ushering in the start of Armenian…

US President Donald Trump, on Wednesday, denied Netanyahu’s statement that the US embassy to Israel will be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem within the year. US Secretary of State Rex…

The Central Council of the Orthodox Christians in Jordan and Palestine said, on Sunday, that it has documents proving that strategic properties of Patriarchate in Jerusalem had been sold to…

Israeli authorities, on Sunday, resumed excavations in several areas in Wadi Al-Rababeh area in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan – only a few dozen meters away from al-Aqsa Mosque…

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) for the week of 04 – 11 January 2018. Israeli forces continued to use excessive force in the…

Pope Francis reiterated, on Monday, his call to respect the status quo of Jerusalem following US President Donald Trump’s recognition of the city as Israel’s capital. Addressing ambassadors from more…

Extremist Israeli settlers continued to storm, on Monday morning, Al Aqsa Mosque, heavily guarded by Israeli occupation forces and police. According to Jerusalem sources, about 34 Jewish extremists stormed al-Aqsa…

The Custos of the Holy Land, Francesco Patton of the Latin Church, Sunday, led the procession that commemorated the baptism of Jesus Christ at the Jordan River, on the Palestine-Jordan…

Palestinian Christians from around the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Israel came out in harsh opposition, Saturday, to a visit by Greek Orthodox Church Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III,…

Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III arriving in Bethlehem for Christmas celebrations. (WAFA photos/Ahmed Mizher)  Orthodox churches celebrating Christmas according to the Eastern calendar completed, on Saturday, their arrival at the…

The Wadi Hilweh Information Center was established in Jerusalem, in 2009, and was named after the area in which it is located. The center aims at revealing the facts and…

Custos of the Holy Land Father Francesco Patton arrived on Friday, in Bethlehem, in anticipation of Epiphany, which takes place on January 6. Patton headed the annual procession of Epiphany,…

In violation of a longstanding agreement between Jordan and Israel, which prevents non-Muslim religious rituals from being performed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, a group of…

The Israeli Knesset approved, on Monday night, the second and third readings of the so-called United Jerusalem Bill, which takes occupied Jerusalem from any future deal with Palestinians. Sources said,…

Tens of thousands of Jewish Israeli settlers are known to have raided the Al-Aqsa in 2017, Anadolu reported. The Director of Islamic Endowment and Al-Aqsa Affairs Department gave the figure…

Hebrew “0404” website, on Tuesday, said that US President Donald Trump has confirmed, to Israel, his intention to transfer the embassy of his country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as…

US Ambassador to Israeli occupation David Friedman has asked the US State Department to stop using the term “occupied” in official documents referring to Israeli occupation of West Bank. Friedman…

Guatemalans reacted with anger and concern over their president’s decision to move his country’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, following suit as a result of a similar…

After Guatemala, Israeli occupation authorities say that another two countries will move embassies of their countries to Jerusalem. Guatemala’s eastern neighbors, Honduras and Paraguay, are also expected to join the…

Israeli settlers and members of Israeli intelligence stormed again, on Tuesday morning, the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque from Mughrabi gate. Jerusalemite sources said, according to Al Ray, that settlers and…

Pope Francis called for peace in Jerusalem and throughout the holy land in his traditional Christmas Urbi et Orbi speech, which, in Latin, means: “To the city and world.” According…

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salman asked Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to back a US-sponsored peace plan for Israel-Palestine, officials told Middle East Eye. Abbas was invited to Saudi…

Dozens of extremist Israeli settlers stormed, on Sunday morning, the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, under heavy guarded of Israeli police. Jerusalemite sources reported, according to Al Ray, that about 45…

Spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Issa Musleh, on Sunday, called upon US president Donald Trump to withdraw his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, according to WAFA.…