Dubai (AP): Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and others have been found dead at the site of a helicopter crash Monday after an hourslong search through a foggy, mountainous region of the country’s northwest, state media reported. Raisi was 63.

The crash comes as the Middle East remains unsettled by the Israel-Hamas war, during which Raisi under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel just last month.

State TV gave no immediate cause for the crash in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. Among the dead was Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, 60.

With Raisi were Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Early Monday morning, Turkish authorities released what they described as drone footage showing what appeared to be a fire in the wilderness that they “suspected to be wreckage of helicopter.”

The coordinates listed in the footage put the fire some 20 kilometres south of the Azerbaijan-Iranian border on the side of a steep mountain.

Footage released by the IRNA early Monday showed what the agency described as the crash site, across a steep valley in a green mountain range. Soldiers speaking in the local Azeri language said: “There it is, we found it.”

File photo of the UN Security Council meeting in New York.

United Nations: The United Nations Security Council on Monday demanded a ceasefire in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramzan, its first demand to halt fighting.

The United States abstained on the resolution, which also demanded the release of all hostages taken captive during Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack in southern Israel. But the measure does not link that demand to the cease-fire during Ramzan, which ends April 9.

Hundreds of patients were trapped and thousands of people sought shelter around Gaza’s largest hospital on Monday, as Israeli troops and Hamas fighters battled near the compound. The Al-Shifa facility in Gaza City has become a focal point in the territory’s bloodiest-ever war, which erupted five weeks ago.

A day after Netanyahu said Israel was bringing its “full force” with the aim of ending Hamas’ 16-year rule in Gaza, residents reported heavy airstrikes and shelling, including around Shifa Hospital.

Israel, without providing evidence, has accused Hamas of concealing a command post inside and under the compound, allegations denied by Hamas and hospital staff.

On Sunday, witnesses at the hospital told AFP that “violent fighting” raged throughout the night. The sounds of small arms fire and aerial bombardments were echoing across the sprawling complex, amid reports that the infirm — including children — were dying for lack of basic provisions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN agencies said as many as 3,000 patients and staff are sheltering inside without adequate fuel, water or food.

Across Gaza City, at the Al-Quds hospital the picture was also said to be dire, with the Palestinian Red Crescent warning it was now out of service due to lack of generator fuel.

Twenty of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are “no longer functioning”, according to the UN’s humanitarian agency.

On October 7, Hamas launched a wave of attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians.

Israel’s relentless campaign in response has killed at least 11,180 people in Gaza, including 4,609 children, according to the Hamas government’s media office.

Calls for a ceasefire to protect civilians have built over a month into the war sparked when Hamas attacked Israel and, according to Israeli officials, killed about 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and seized 239 hostages.

Aiming to destroy Hamas, Israel retaliated with a relentless bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip that, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, has killed more than 10,500 people, many of them children.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected the prospect of a ceasefire in Gaza, amid reports of negotiations for a temporary truce with Hamas to allow in humanitarian aid.

The Israeli army said 50,000 people left north Gaza for the south of the narrow coastal strip on Wednesday as the fighting raged between Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and Israeli troops.

“We saw today how 50,000 Gazans moved from northern Gaza to southern Gaza,” said military spokesman Daniel Hagari. “They’re leaving because they understand that Hamas lost control in the north, and in the south it’s safer.”

Around 15,000 people had fled on Tuesday, compared with 5,000 on Monday and 2,000 on Sunday, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

UN rights chief Volker Turk condemned Israel over the forced evacuations during a visit to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the only way out of the besieged territory that is not controlled by Israel.

“The collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians amounts also to a war crime, as does the unlawful forcible evacuation of civilians,” he told a news conference.

“The aid getting through is a trickle,” Turk said, adding it was Israel’s obligation to “ensure a maximum of basic necessities of life that can reach all who need it.That evacuations of wounded Palestinians and dual nationals were interrupted Wednesday despite a large crowd waiting at the crossing terminal, blaming what they said was Israel’s refusal to approve the list of wounded to be taken across the border.

A source close to Hamas had said talks were underway for the release of a dozen hostages held by the Islamists, including six Americans, in return for a three-day ceasefire in Gaza.

Earlier a separate source briefed on the talks said Qatar was mediating negotiations in coordination with the US to free “10-15 hostages in exchange for a one- to two-day ceasefire”.

As the talks proceeded, the pace of Palestinian civilians fleeing south from northern Gaza accelerated in the face of Israel’s intensifying air and ground campaign, according to UN observers.

“We’ve lost our homes, we’ve lost our children. Where is the global community? Where are our fellow Muslims? Look at us!” said Nouh Hammouda, who was among those fleeing.

“We left our homes due to the relentless bombardment. Where can we go now?” he said as people streamed southward on the road.

Israel has set an aim of destroying Hamas and said its ground forces were advancing in pursuit of the militants who have a deep network of tunnels and underground bases.

“(Israeli troops) are tightening the stranglehold around the city of Gaza,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.

Israel has air-dropped leaflets and sent texts ordering civilians in northern Gaza to flee south, but potentially hundreds of thousands remained in the worst-hit areas.

Images taken by an AFP journalist embedded with Israeli troops showed them emerging from tanks to comb the shells of Gaza residential buildings destroyed in the fighting.

Hamas accused the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) of “colluding” with Israel in the “forced displacement” of Gazans, after residents followed instructions to flee.

G7 foreign ministers said they supported “humanitarian pauses and corridors” in the Israel-Hamas war, but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire.

As fighting intensifies in Gaza, families of people taken hostage by Hamas have been pushing on various fronts for help to bring their loved ones home.

“Every day is like eternity to me and I can’t wait any longer,” Doris Liber, whose 26-year-old son Guy Iluz was shot and taken hostage at a music festival, told reporters in Washington.

Military analysts warned of weeks of gruelling house-to-house fighting ahead in Gaza.

The operation is hugely complicated for Israel because of the hostages, including very young children and frail elderly people, who are believed to be held inside a vast tunnel network.

The Israeli army said it had uncovered around 130 tunnel entrances in Gaza. It also reported the deaths of two more soldiers, bringing to 33 the total number killed in the offensive.

Hamas released video footage of fierce street battles between its armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, and Israeli forces in the northern and southern axis of Gaza City.

In densely packed Gaza — where more than 1.5 million people have fled their homes in a desperate search for safety — the suffering is immense.

Hamas said several cemeteries in Gaza had “no more space for burials”, while the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said most of the territory’s sewage pumping stations were shut.

A rare delivery of emergency medical supplies and medicines on Wednesday reached Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the UN and World Health Organization said.

But they highlighted the delivery of life-saving supplies was only the second to reach the hospital since the war erupted and was “far from sufficient to respond to the immense needs”.

Tom Potokar, chief surgeon at the International Committee of the Red Cross who entered Gaza on October 27, described the scene at the European hospital in Khan Yunis as “relentless” and “catastrophic”.

“In the last 24 hours, I’ve seen three patients with maggots in their wounds,” including a six-year-old child, he said in a telephone interview.

Israel accuses Hamas of building military tunnels underneath hospitals, schools and mosques — charges the militant group denies.

Israel has hammered Gaza with more than 12,000 air and artillery strikes and sent in ground forces that have effectively cut it in half.

An independent UN expert branded Israel’s systematic bombardment of housing and civilian infrastructure in Gaza as well as Hamas’s rocket attacks that hit Israeli dwellings as war crimes.

The Israeli government said Wednesday it was “premature” to predict scenarios for Gaza after it ousts Hamas, but that it was already discussing the prospect with other countries.

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and two years later imposed a crippling air, sea and land blockade, as Hamas took control of the Palestinian territory.

“We’re exploring several contingencies together with our international partners for what the ‘day after’ will look like,” said government spokesman Eylon Levy.

But the “common denominator” is that Gaza will be “demilitarised” and “must never again” become a “terror nest”, he said.

Netanyahu had said earlier this week that Israel would assume “overall security” of Gaza.

Violence is also increasing in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, where more than 150 Palestinians have been killed by fire from Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7, according to the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli air strikes on Wednesday killed three pro-Iran fighters as they hit sites belonging to the powerful Lebanese Hezbollah group near the Syrian capital Damascus, a war monitor said.

Israel has struck Syria several times in the past month as regional tensions simmer.

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s administration is developing a national strategy to combat Islamophobia as the White House faces skepticism from many Muslim Americans for its staunch support of Israel’s military assault in Gaza.

Plans for the initiative, which the White House billed as the first of its kind, were announced Wednesday. It is meant to bring together lawmakers, advocacy groups and other community leaders with the administration in order to “counter the scourge of Islamophobia and hate in all its forms,” the White House said.

The White House originally was expected to announce its plans to develop the strategy last week when Biden met with Muslim leaders, but that was delayed, according to three people familiar with the matter. Two said the delay was due partly to concerns from Muslim Americans that the administration lacked credibility on the issue given its robust backing of Israel’s military, whose strikes against Hamas militants have killed thousands of civilians in Gaza. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the White House plans.

The launch of the anti-Islamophobia effort has been anticipated for months after the administration in May released a national strategy to combat antisemitism that made passing reference to countering hatred against Muslims.

The new initiative is expected to take months to formalize, following a similar process to the plan to counter antisemitism that involved various government agencies. White House spokeswoman Emilie Simons said Wednesday that the interagency group’s “next step is to release a strategy on Islamophobia.” She did not offer details on a timeline for the effort.

Incidences of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate have skyrocketed in the United States and abroad since the surprise that killed more than 1,400 people and saw hundreds taken hostage, and Israel’s response in Gaza, where it has pledged to use force to “destroy” Hamas. One of the most prominent attacks in the U.S. was the killing of 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume and the wounding of his mother in an attack in Illinois that prosecutors allege was driven by Islamophobia.

“This horrific act of hate has no place in America and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are,” Biden said afterward.

There had been widespread agreement among Muslim Americans on the need for a national strategy to counter Islamophobia, according to a fourth person familiar with the matter, who added that the Israel-Hamas war has made the timing of the White House announcement more complicated. The person, who was also not authorized to speak publicly about the internal deliberations, said the administration wants to keep the two issues separate, while some prominent Muslim American groups see them as interrelated.

Administration officials, during the meeting with a small group of faith leaders last week, indicated things were “in the works” for an anti-Islamophobia strategy, said Rami Nashashibi, the founder of the Inner City Muslim Action Network in Chicago and a participant in that session.

Nashashibi said he believed such an effort would be “dead on arrival” with the Muslim community until the president and administration officials forcefully condemn members of the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who have openly called for the eradication of Palestinians from Gaza and until the administration more aggressively calls out hate crimes targeting Muslims and Arab Americans.

He and other leaders also want Biden to apologize, or at least publicly clarify, his recent comments in which he said he had “no confidence” in the Palestinian death count from Israel’s retaliatory strikes, because the data comes from the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

The United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank — rivals of Hamas — say the Gaza ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions. In previous wars, the ministry’s counts have held up to U.N. scrutiny, independent investigations and even Israel’s tallies.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that the administration is “not taking the Ministry of Health at face value” but he acknowledged there have been “many thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza” in the conflict.

Nashashibi also said the White House strategy could land flat at a moment when many Muslim Americans feel that advocacy stands for Palestinian self-determination is being unfairly lumped in with those espousing antisemitism and backing of extremists.

“That conflating is in great part contributing to an atmosphere where we could see even more deadly results and more targeting,” he said. Nashashibi added, “The White House does not have the credibility to roll out an Islamophobia strategy at this moment without publicly addressing the points we explicitly raised with the president during our meeting.”

Asked if the White House had a credibility issue, Simons, the spokeswoman, said the administration would continue its outreach efforts.

“We know that communities are feeling the pain of what’s going on overseas and in a deeply personal way,” Simons said. “And so we’re going to continue to speak to these different communities underscore the work we’re doing to get aid into Gaza and the conditions we’re trying to set up to support a humanitarian pause.”

By AFP

KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky urged G7 nations on Monday to provide extra gas and weapons to help Ukraine survive a brutal winter that threatens to bring further suffering to millions in the war-torn country.

With snow on the ground and Ukraine’s energy grid battered by Russian strikes, many are facing freezing temperatures without power or heating.

During a video conference with the G7 club of wealthy nations on Monday, Zelensky said Ukraine needs “about two billion cubic metres” of additional gas to get through the winter.

He also urged the G7 to send more arms to Ukraine, including “modern tanks” as well as “rocket artillery and more long-range missiles”.

Western-supplied weapons have helped turn the tide in the war, and a senior US military official said Monday that Russia is likely turning to older, less reliable artillery and rocket ammunition as its newer stocks run low.

But Zelensky said “Russia still has the advantage in artillery and missiles.”

“This is a fact,” he told the G7. “These capabilities of the occupying army are the ones to fuel the Kremlin’s arrogance”.

We will survive

Meanwhile, in the strategic Ukrainian port of Ochakiv, officials are hoping the Black Sea naval base can serve to consolidate Kyiv’s gains in the southern Kherson region.

After failing to seize the port, Russian troops have been pummelling Ochakiv from the nearby Kinburn peninsula.

In the fog at the local market, 62-year-old Oleg Klyutshko said: “I am not afraid of winter… but I would like the strikes to stop. We will survive anything else.”

Kyiv says 40 per cent of Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure has been damaged, with wave after wave of targeted Russian attacks.

The Ukrainian energy ministry said in a statement that Russian missiles had hit all of the country’s thermal power plants, while 44 overhead high-voltage power lines had also been affected.

Power company YASNO said supply limitations in Kyiv were “significant” with some 40 per cent of supplies diverted to critical infrastructure.

Oil and gas company DTEK said its specialists were “constantly looking for equipment to restore the energy infrastructure destroyed by Russia” and had agreed on contracts with European suppliers ABB and Siemens.

According to a readout issued by his office, Zelensky told the G7 “the terror against our power plants forced us to use more gas than expected”.

“This is why we need additional support over this particular winter,” he said.

The G7 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany — which currently holds the club’s presidency — Italy, Japan and the United States.

G7 leaders agreed on key elements of a platform to coordinate financial support for Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, before a summit in Paris on post-war reconstruction.

Zelensky also proposed a special summit, which he called the Global Peace Formula Summit, “to determine how and when we can implement the points of the Ukrainian Peace Formula,” which would secure Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity.

He invited the G7 industrialised nations “as well as other conscientious countries” to “show your leadership”.

The Ukrainian leader also urged Russia “to take a concrete and meaningful step towards a diplomatic settlement”.

Zelensky called on “the occupier” Moscow to leave Ukrainian territory by Christmas.

“The one who brought the war upon us has to take it away.”

Rethink’ nuclear security

An international conference hosted by France will kick off in Paris on Tuesday.

The gathering of politicians, blue-chip companies and aid agencies will focus on how Ukraine’s Western allies can provide immediate support to keep its civil infrastructure afloat amid incessant bombing by Russia.

Speaking to AFP ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Ukraine’s energy minister German Galushchenko said in an interview that the war with Russia “completely changes our understanding of nuclear security”.

He pointed to Russia’s seizure of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest atomic facility — which has raised alarm among Western allies as shelling has continued in the area throughout the nearly 10-month conflict.

“This situation absolutely pushes us to rethink what we should do from the point of view of (nuclear) safety,” Galushchenko said. “That’s a question, too, to all the countries of the world.”

BEITA (West Bank): Israel’s fragile new government has shown little interest in addressing the decades-old conflict with the Palestinians, but it may not have a choice.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s best hope for maintaining his ruling coalition — which consists of eight parties from across the political spectrum — will be to manage the conflict, the same approach favored by his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, for most of his 12-year rule. But that method failed to prevent three Gaza wars and countless smaller eruptions.

That’s because the status quo for Palestinians involves expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, looming evictions in Jerusalem, home demolitions, deadly shootings and an array of discriminatory measures that two well-known human rights groups say amount to apartheid. In Gaza, which has been under a crippling blockade since the Hamas militant group seized power in 2007, it’s even worse.

“They talk about it being a government of change, but it’s just going to entrench the status quo,” said Waleed Assaf, a Palestinian official who coordinates protests against West Bank settlements. “Bennett is a copy of Netanyahu, and he might even be more radical.”

Bennett said little about the Palestinians in a speech before being sworn in on Sunday. “Violence will be met with a firm response,” he warned, adding that “security calm will lead to economic moves, which will lead to reducing friction and the conflict.”

Environment Minister Tamar Zandberg, a member of the dovish Meretz party, told Israeli television’s Channel 12 that she believes the peace process is important, but that the new government has agreed, “at least at this stage, not to deal with it.”

The government faces an early challenge on Jabal Sabeeh, a hilltop in the northern West Bank where dozens of Jewish settlers rapidly established an outpost last month, paving roads and setting up living quarters that they say are now home to dozens of families.

The settlement, named Eviatar after an Israeli who was killed in an attack in 2013, was built without the permission of Israeli authorities on land the Palestinians say is privately owned. Israeli troops have evacuated settlers from the site three times before, but they returned after an Israeli was killed in a shooting attack nearby early last month.

Clearing them out again would embarrass Bennett and other right-wing members of the coalition, who already face fierce criticism — and even death threats — for allying with centrist and left-wing factions to oust Netanyahu.

The government faces a similar dilemma over a parade through east Jerusalem organized by ultranationalists that is due to be held Tuesday. The march risks setting off the kind of protests and clashes that helped ignite last month’s Gaza war.

Meanwhile, Palestinians from the adjacent village of Beita have held regular protests against the settlement outpost. Demonstrators have thrown stones, and Israeli troops have fired tear gas and live ammunition. Three protesters have been killed, including 17-year-old Mohammed Hamayel, who was shot dead Friday. Initial reports said he was 15.

“I always taught him you should stand up for your rights without infringing on the rights of others,” his father, Said, said at a mourning event attended by dozens of villagers. He described his son as a popular teenager who got good grades and was a natural leader.

“Thank God, I’m very proud of my son,” he said. “Even in martyrdom he distinguished himself.”

The villagers fear that if the outpost remains, it will eventually swallow up even more of their land, growing and merging with some of the more than 130 authorized settlements across the occupied West Bank, where nearly 500,000 settlers live.

“We’re not a political game in the hands of Bennett or Netanyahu,” said Mohammed Khabeesa, a resident who says he owns land near the settler outpost that he can no longer access without a military permit.

“The settlements are like a cancer,” he said. “Everyone knows they begin small, and then they take root and expand at people’s expense until they reach our homes.”

A spokeswoman for the settler organization behind the outpost did not respond to a request for comment.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state. The settlements are seen by the Palestinians and much of the international community as a major obstacle to peace because they make it nearly impossible to create a contiguous, viable state of Palestine alongside Israel.

Every Israeli government since 1967 has expanded the settlements, and this one is unlikely to be an exception. Bennett briefly served as head of a major settler organization, and his party is one of three in the coalition that strongly support settlements.

Hagit Ofran, an expert on settlements with the Israeli rights group Peace Now, says the settlers have always used illegal outposts to challenge Israeli authorities, a trend she expects to accelerate under the new government.

“Because the settlers feel this government is not their government, challenging it, psychologically, will be much, much easier,” she said.

She hopes the new government will at least put the brakes on larger settlement projects, including massive infrastructure that will pave the way for future growth.

“I think it’s more easy politically to stop big budgets and big projects rather than evicting an outpost,” she said. “I would rather see that the government is stopping the big projects rather than fighting over every hilltop. The settlers have the opposite interest.”

ISLAMABAD: The Afghanistan peace process is the shared obligation of all stakeholders and one country alone cannot take responsibility for any negative outcome, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Monday, as he rejected the country’s closeness with the Taliban militants.

A similar troop-pullout was announced by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, giving way to speculation that the Taliban and other armed factions could fill the power vacuum in the region.

Speaking at the inaugural Pakistan-Afghanistan Bilateral Dialogue in Islamabad on Monday, Qureshi said Afghan officials often resorted to blaming Pakistan for their own failures.

He hoped the same would not happen during the upcoming visit of Afghan leaders to the US, led by President Ashraf Ghani.

“I wish them luck and a good visit but let me spell it down in advance. If the objective of going to Washington is starting a new blame game and holding Pakistan responsible for all the ills and the lack of progress in the peace process in Afghanistan, then it will not help,” he said.

Qureshi said Pakistan has suffered because of terrorism.

“I, as the elected representative of Pakistan, do not want to see ‘Talibanisation’ of Pakistan. How can I be more clear than that?” said Qureshi.

“There is a general buzz that we are advocates of the Taliban. I am not and I don’t represent them, I represent Pakistan. Taliban are Afghans,” said.

Qureshi said there was no military solution to the Afghan conflict and the most advanced armies and weapons could not bring peace by force.

Tens of thousands of Palestinian worshippers earlier packed the mosque on the final Friday of Ramadan and many stayed to protest.

Courtesy: Al Jazeera

Israeli police fired rubber-coated metal bullets and stun grenades towards rock-hurling Palestinians at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque as anger grows over the potential eviction of Palestinians from homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem.

At least 205 Palestinians and 17 officers were injured in the night-time clashes at Islam’s third-holiest site and around East Jerusalem, Palestinian medics and Israeli police said, as thousands of Palestinians faced off with several hundred Israeli police in riot gear.KEEP READINGPossible Israel war crimes in East Jerusalem land right case: UNWhat is happening in occupied East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah?Palestinians vow to save Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhoodPalestinians criticise social media censorship over Sheikh Jarrah

Violence erupted on Friday when Israeli police deployed heavily as Muslims were performing evening prayers at Al-Aqsa during the holy month of Ramadan.

Video footage from the scene shows worshippers throwing chairs, shoes and rocks towards the police and officers opening fire. Israeli police also closed gates leading to Al-Aqsa inside the walled Old City.

The Palestine Red Crescent ambulance service said one of the injured lost an eye, two suffered serious head wounds, and two had their jaws fractured. Most were wounded in the face and eyes by rubber-coated rounds and shrapnel from stun grenades.

An Al-Aqsa official appealed for calm on the compound through the mosque’s loudspeakers. “Police must immediately stop firing stun grenades at worshippers, and the youth must calm down and be quiet.”

Tens of thousands of Palestinian worshippers earlier packed into the mosque on the final Friday of Ramadan, and many stayed on to protest in support of Palestinians facing eviction from their homes on Israeli-occupied land claimed by Jewish settlers in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.

Calls for calm and restraint poured in from the United States and the United Nations, with others including the European Union and Jordan voicing alarm at the possible evictions.

“If we don’t stand with this group of people here, [evictions] will [come] to my house, her house, his house and to every Palestinian who lives here,” said protester Bashar Mahmoud, 23, from the nearby Palestinian neighbourhood of Issawiya.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he “held [Israel] responsible for the dangerous developments and sinful attacks taking place in the holy city”, and called on the UN Security Council to hold an urgent session on the issue.

Abbas praised the “courageous stand” of the protesters.

‘Remain steadfast’

With health restrictions mostly lifted following Israel’s swift coronavirus vaccine campaign, worshippers packed tightly together as they knelt in prayer on the tree-lined hilltop plateau containing the mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site.

However, thousands of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank were blocked from reaching the Al-Aqsa Mosque as Israeli forces set up several roadblocks and checkpoints along the way to the holy site.

Continuing tensions in the city at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were front and centre in the Friday sermon given by Sheikh Tayseer Abu Sunainah.

“Our people will remain steadfast and patient in their homes, in our blessed land,” Abu Sunainah said of the multiple Palestinian families in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood who could be evicted under a long-running legal case.

Following prayers, thousands remained in the compound to protest against the evictions, with many waving Palestinian flags and chanting a refrain common during Jerusalem protests: “With our soul and blood, we will redeem you, Aqsa”.

Israel’s Supreme Court will hold a hearing on the Sheikh Jarrah evictions on Monday. Israelis and Palestinians are bracing for more violence in the coming days.

Sunday night is “Laylat al-Qadr” or the “Night of Destiny”, the most sacred in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Worshippers will gather for intense nighttime prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Sunday night is also the start of Jerusalem Day, a national holiday in which Israel celebrates its annexation of East Jerusalem and religious nationalists hold parades and other celebrations in the city.

Sheikh Jarrah’s residents are overwhelmingly Palestinian, but the neighbourhood also contains a site revered by religious Jews as the tomb of an ancient high priest, Simeon the Just.

The spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said the evictions, “if ordered and implemented, would violate Israel’s obligations under international law” on East Jerusalem territory it captured and occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

“We call on Israel to immediately halt all forced evictions, including those in Sheikh Jarrah, and to cease any activity that would further contribute to a coercive environment and lead to a risk of forcible transfer,” spokesman Rupert Colville said on Friday.

Israel’s foreign ministry said on Friday that Palestinians were “presenting a real-estate dispute between private parties as a nationalist cause in order to incite violence in Jerusalem”.

Palestinians rejected the allegation.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.455.0_en.html#goog_1530444552Play Video

‘Our families are terrified’

Over the past week, residents of Sheikh Jarrah, as well as Palestinian and international solidarity activists, have attended nightly vigils to support the Palestinian families under threat of forced displacement.

But on Friday, Israeli police blocked off the entrances of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood to hundreds of Palestinians and solidarity activists trying to enter the area, said activists.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1390690367532580865&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2021%2F5%2F7%2Fal-aqsa-worshippers-protest-palestinian-evictions-in-jerusalem&sessionId=1ec37a01eb4214ae0b381bbbce4ea8f5c0a88010&theme=light&widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&width=550px