Occupied East Jerusalem

Thousands of worshippers attend prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, with others turned away despite carrying required permits.

About 100,000 Palestinian worshippers have prayed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem for the second Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, despite Israel imposing severe restrictions on access to the holy site.

Worshippers were subjected to thorough security screening on Friday as they made their way through the Qalandiya checkpoint in the occupied West Bank north of Jerusalem to pray, an Al Jazeera team reported, amid a heavy deployment of Israeli forces around the city.

Israeli authorities imposed rules at the start of Ramadan to limit entry for Friday prayers to just 10,000 Palestinian worshippers with daily permits – a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands who would attend in normal years.

Under the Israeli rules, only men over 55, women 50 years or older, and children under 12, accompanied by a relative, are permitted to enter.

Visitors are also required to complete digital verification procedures at crossings when returning to the West Bank.

Bans on individuals

As well as the restrictions, Israeli authorities recently announced bans on 280 Jerusalem residents, including religious figures, journalists, and released prisoners, from attending prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The push to limit Palestinians’ access to the holy site during Ramadan is widely seen as part of an effort to pressure Palestinian communities and erase the Palestinian cultural identity of occupied East Jerusalem, which Palestinians view as the capital of their future state.

The restrictions have further increased since the genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Turned away despite permits

Despite the restrictions, attendance at the mosque was considerably higher than the supposed cap of 10,000 visitors, as it was the previous week, when Jerusalem’s Islamic Waqf, the religious authority that administers the compound, said 80,000 people attended the first Friday prayers of Ramadan.

Yet many Palestinians who attempted to attend, including some who said they had the necessary permits, found themselves turned away by Israeli authorities.

Najati Oweida, who travelled from Hebron, told Anadolu that Israeli soldiers turned him back despite presenting a permit.

“The occupation claims it has provided facilitation, but the procedures are strict,” he said. “I only want to pray at Al-Aqsa. Why am I being prevented?”

Another man, Ali Nawas, 58, told the news agency that he and his wife had travelled for more than an hour from Nablus in the occupied West Bank, only for his wife to be turned back at the Qalandiya checkpoint, despite her having a permit.

“I was forced to return with her. How could she go back to Nablus alone?” he said.

A new United Nations Human Rights Office report says Israel’s military campaign and blockade of Gaza have created living conditions “increasingly incompatible with Palestinians’ continued existence as a group in Gaza” as it presses its genocidal war on the enclave.

The report released on Thursday states that “intensified attacks, the methodical destruction of entire neighbourhoods and the denial of humanitarian assistance appeared to aim at a permanent demographic shift in Gaza”.

“This, together with forcible transfers, which appear to aim at a permanent displacement, raise concerns over ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Covering the period from November 1, 2024 to October 31, 2025, the report documents Israel’s security forces’ “systematic use of unlawful force” in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

It highlights “widespread” arbitrary detention and the “extensive unlawful demolition” of Palestinian homes, stating that the measures seek to “systematically discriminate, oppress, control and dominate the Palestinian people”.

These policies are altering “the character, status and demographic composition of the occupied West Bank, raising serious concerns of ethnic cleansing”.

In Gaza, the report condemns the killing and maiming of “unprecedented numbers of civilians”, the spread of famine and the destruction of the “remaining civilian infrastructure”.

At least 463 Palestinians, including 157 children, starved to death during the 12-month period, according to the findings.

“Palestinians faced the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risking being killed while trying to get food,” it says, adding that the famine and “foreseeable and repeatedly foretold” deaths directly resulted from actions taken by the Israeli government.

Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza

Israeli forces launched new air strikes and artillery attacks across the Gaza Strip, as families in the besieged enclave woke to begin their Ramadan fast under bombardment.

Shelling struck areas east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza at dawn on Thursday, where Israeli troops remain deployed. Warplanes also hit Rafah and areas east of Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondent.

A day earlier, medical officials at Nasser Medical Complex confirmed that two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire near the so-called “yellow line” in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis.

Israeli forces continue to demolish homes and infrastructure in areas they control, flattening entire neighbourhoods and entrenching displacement.

The attacks form part of Israel’s repeated breaches of the ceasefire that began on October 10, 2025.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health says those violations have killed 603 Palestinians and wounded 1,618 others as of Monday.

‘Partnership between settlers and the occupation forces’

Violence has also intensified in the occupied West Bank.

On Wednesday evening, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the death of 19-year-old Nasrallah Mohammad Jamal Abu Siam, who succumbed to wounds sustained during a settler assault on Mukhmas, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem.

Settlers, operating under the protection of Israeli forces, opened fire and stole dozens of sheep from Palestinian farmers. Three of the wounded were shot with live ammunition.

With Abu Siam’s killing, the number of Palestinians shot dead by settlers alone since October 7, 2023 has risen to 37, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.

Moayad Shaaban, head of the commission, described events in Mukhmas as a “dangerous escalation in organised settler terrorism”, citing a “full partnership between settlers and the occupation forces”.

Israeli troops also raided the town of Arraba, south of Jenin, wounding two young men with live fire, one critically. Soldiers detained several others during the incursion.

In Jerusalem, Ramadan has brought further restrictions at Al-Aqsa Mosque. The mosque’s imam, Sheikh Akrama Sabri, said Israeli authorities are “imposing a reality by force” by limiting worshippers while allowing extremist Jewish incursions into the compound.

Occupation authorities have issued more than 100 deportation orders barring young Jerusalemites from entering the mosque and restricted West Bank worshippers to 10,000 permits under strict age and security conditions. Al-Aqsa can hold up to half a million people.

Sheikh Sabri said Israeli forces question worshippers during tarawih prayers in what he described as “provocation upon provocation”.

Israeli forces carried out violent raids across the occupied West Bank, detaining Palestinians and demolishing homes. A young man was killed by settlers in Mukhmas, Jerusalem, while restrictions on West Bank worshippers at Al-Aqsa added to tensions during Ramadan.

Attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank have intensified recently, backed by Israeli forces.

A young Palestinian man was killed and four other people were injured when a group of Israeli settlers, backed by Israeli forces, opened fire on a village in the occupied West Bank.

The death of the young man on Wednesday evening, identified as Nasrallah Abu Siyam, 19, marks the first killing of a Palestinian by Israeli settler gunfire so far this year, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

During the attack on the village of Mukhmas, located northeast of occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli settlers also stole dozens of sheep from local Palestinian residents, Wafa reports.

The attack on Mukhmas and other Palestinian towns and villages constitutes a “dangerous escalation in systematic terrorism and reflects a complete partnership between the settlers and the occupation forces,” Mu’ayyad Sha’ban, head of the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, told Wafa.

Calling for international protection for Palestinian communities, Sha’ban said that settlers have now killed 37 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, but the escalating violence would not deter Palestinians from holding onto their land.

Mukhmas and the adjacent Bedouin community of Khallat al-Sidra have faced repeated attacks by Israeli settlers, often occurring with the protection or presence of Israeli forces, according to reports.

The governorate of Jerusalem, one of the 16 administrative districts of Palestine, said in a statement that the killing of the young man by Israeli settlers was a “fully-fledged crime… carried out under the protection and supervision of the Israeli occupation forces.”

Translation: Martyr of the town of Mukhmas, Nasrallah Abu Siyam, who ascended after succumbing to his injury from settler gunfire during the attack on the town northeast of occupied Jerusalem.

The governorate said the attack was part of a dangerous surge of violence carried out by settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and characterised by the widespread use of live ammunition, direct shooting at Palestinian citizens, as well as burning local Palestinian homes, damaging vehicles and property, and seizing land.

Armed settler violence is being supported by “pillars of the Israeli government”, foremost among them far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, the governorate added, according to Wafa.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank since 2023, and more than 10,000 people have been forcibly displaced.

Since the start of this year alone, almost 700 Palestinians in nine communities have been displaced due to settler attacks, including 600 displaced from the Ras Ein al-Auja Bedouin community in Jericho governorate, OCHA reports.

Earlier this week, Israel’s government approved a plan to designate large areas of the occupied West Bank as Israeli “state property”, shifting the burden of proof to Palestinians to establish ownership of their land in a longstanding situation where Israel has made it all but impossible to obtain property titles.

Described as de-facto annexation of the West Bank, the Israeli government’s decision has drawn widespread international condemnation as a grave escalation that undermines the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

Israel’s attempted land grab and killings by settlers come amid a sharp increase in Israeli military operations across the occupied West Bank, where forces have intensified raids, carried out forced evictions, home demolitions, and other repressive measures in multiple areas.

UN warns that Israel’s plan will lead to widespread dispossession of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

More than 80 United Nations member states have condemned Israel’s plan to expand control over the occupied West Bank and claim large tracts of Palestinian territory as Israeli “state property”.

“We strongly condemn unilateral Israeli decisions and measures aimed at expanding Israel’s unlawful presence in the West Bank,” Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said on Tuesday, speaking on behalf of the coalition of 85 member states and several international organisations.

“Such decisions are contrary to Israel’s obligations under international law and must be immediately reversed. We underline in this regard our strong opposition to any form of annexation,” Mansour said.

“We reiterate our rejection of all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem,” he said.

“Such measures violate international law, undermine the ongoing efforts for peace and stability in the region, run counter to the Comprehensive Plan and jeopardise the prospect of reaching a peace agreement ending the conflict”, he added.

The Comprehensive Plan is a November agreement between Israel and Hamas to end Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which includes a halt to Israel’s illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

Signatories to the joint statement on Tuesday include Australia, Canada, China, France, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye , the United Arab Emirates, the European Union, the League of Arab States and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

The joint statement follows Israel’s decision to implement land registration in Section C of the West Bank for the first time since 1967, when Israel began its occupation of Palestinian territory.

Section C makes up about 60 percent of the West Bank’s territory, according to the illegal settlement monitoring organisation Peace Now.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, earlier this week, warned that Israel’s land registration plan could lead to the “dispossession of Palestinians of their property and risks expanding Israeli control over land in the area”.

Guterres warned that the process could be both “destabilising” and unlawful, citing a landmark 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that stated Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is unlawful and must end.

Israel’s “abuse of its status as the occupying power” renders its “presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful”, the ICJ said in its ruling.

“Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law,” the court added.

According to the ICJ, approximately 465,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank, spread across some 300 settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.

Separately on Tuesday, a 13-year-old Palestinian child was killed, and two other children were seriously injured, in the occupied West Bank’s central Jordan Valley area by ammunition discarded by the Israeli military, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

The injured children, aged 12 and 14, are receiving treatment in hospital, Wafa said.

Israel’s decision to resume the land registration processes in the occupied West Bank for the first time since 1967 will facilitate the dispossession and displacement of Palestinians in violation of international law, Israeli rights groups say.

The land registration process – also known as settlement of land title – has been reinstated after nearly six decades, following the government’s approval on Sunday of a proposal submitted by far-right Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, and Minister of Defence Israel Katz.

While Israel has increased the confiscation of Palestinian land through military orders, with the activity reaching record levels in 2025, the new move gives Israel a legal avenue that “systemati[ses] the dispossession of Palestinian land to further Israeli settlement expansion and cement the apartheid regime”, Bimkom, an Israeli human rights organisation that focuses on land and housing rights, said in a statement.

Michal Braier, head of research at Bimkom, told Al Jazeera that land registration will be inaccessible to large segments of the Palestinian population who never had their land formally registered, or who may fail to prove ownership.

In the occupied West Bank, land registration under the Jordanian Administration – which followed British Mandate rule and lasted from 1949 to 1967 – covered about 30 percent of the total area. As a consequence, about 70 percent of the West Bank is “completely unregistered”, Braier said, making it “very hard to determine who actually owns the land”.

Even for those whose land was registered, “the legal bar for proving land ownership is very, very high, in a way that most Palestinians won’t have the proper documents to prove it”, said Braier.

‘Full annexation’

In 1968, Israeli occupation authorities froze most land settlement procedures in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, making transfer of ownership down the family line hard to prove for Palestinians.

Additionally, legal documents could have been lost or stored in homes that are now out of reach to Palestinian refugees displaced by the Arab–Israeli war (1948-49) – when the newly-founded Israel seized control of 77 percent of Palestine – and in the Six Day War of 1967, which ended with Israel capturing the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria, while occupying the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now said the newly reinstated process of land registration amounts to a “full annexation” of Palestinian land.

“This is a way for Israel to take control over the West Bank,” Hagit Ofran, a Peace Now member, told Al Jazeera. “The government is asking for papers that are dating back to the British mandate or to the Jordanian time 100 years ago.”

“This is something that, very rarely, Palestinians will be able to prove, and therefore, by default, the land will be registered under [Israel’s] name,” she added.

Israel’s Supreme Court last month rejected a petition opposing the resumption of the land registration process, filed by local human rights groups Bimkom, Yesh Din, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and HaMoked. The court deemed it “premature” to rule on the implementation of the government’s decision.

‘Totally invalid’

Israeli authorities have provided few details on how the process will unfold. Yet, a similar scenario has already played out in occupied East Jerusalem, where the settlement of land title that began in 2018 resulted in the expropriation of Palestinian land.

Research conducted by Bimkom found that only 1 percent of the East Jerusalem land registered for ownership between 2018 and 2024 was registered to Palestinians, while the rest came under the control of the Israeli state or private Israeli owners.

The move expanded Israel’s de facto annexation over East Jerusalem in breach of international law, including, most recently, an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2024.

In its landmark ruling, the World Court found that Israel’s “expropriation of land and properties, transfer of populations, and legislation aimed at the incorporation of the occupied section are totally invalid and cannot change that status”.

More broadly, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s long-term occupation of Palestinian territory – comprised of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – was unlawful, and must be terminated “as rapidly as possible”.

Braier said the Israeli government’s decision was its latest move expand control over Palestinian territory in breach of international law.

“The government is not hiding its intentions. They want to expand settlements and push Palestinians into as small an area as possible.”

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, said that the steadfastness of Palestinians in Gaza despite genocide, shows ‘the failure of Israel’. Barghouti is at the Al Jazeera Forum, an event focusing on geopolitical shifts in the Middle East.