Live: Major clashes break out near Bethlehem after Israeli raid

Israeli authorities issued demolition orders for a school near Hebron in the area that rose to prominence after it was featured in an Oscar-winning documentary, Wafa news agency reported on Monday.

Osama Makhamreh told Wafa that the Khallat Umayra School, east of the town of Yatta, has 54 enrolled students from kindergarten through fourth grade. 

Yatta is near a cluster of villages called Masafer Yatta that has been targeted since the 1970s by the Israeli military. It featured in the documentary No Other Land. 

Israeli armed forces have been deployed since dawn in the city of Tubas and the nearby town of Aqaba on Monday, Wafa news agency reported.

It is the second time in a week that they have raided both places. They conducted a four-day raid earlier this week. Israeli soldiers enforced a curfew and closure of entrances to the two locations on Monday.

They also detained a 22-year-old after raiding his family's home in Tubas. According to the director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society in Tubas, the same 22-year-old had been detained and interrogated two days earlier, along with six more people. All were later released.

Residents of a predominantly Palestinian neighbourhood close to the Old City of Jerusalem are facing the prospect of being forced out of their homes, according to a report in The Guardian on Monday.

Zohair Rajabi, 55, and his extended family live in their four-storey home in Batn al-Hawa that his grandfather built on land he bought 60 years ago. 

The neighbourhood in East Jerusalem has been a target of an Israeli organisation for decades, which has been working to seize control of parts of Jerusalem after the 1967 war. 

Hundreds of Palestinians have been targeted, and some have already been forced to leave. 

Palestinians make up almost half, 40 percent, of the population of Jerusalem, according to official numbers, but unofficial numbers put the number much higher. Successive Israeli governments have been working to increase the city's Jewish population.

Israeli settlers uprooted around 850 olive and grape trees belonging to a Palestinian family southeast of Yatta, south of Hebron, on Monday.

Activist Osama Makhamreh told Wafa news agency that armed settlers from the Susiya illegal outpost stormed the lands of Khirbet Khallat al-Hummus under the protection of the army.

As well as uprooting around 850 olive and grape trees, they destroyed and vandalised the property.

Since the 10 October ceasefire was brokered between Israel and Gaza, the number of Palestinians killed has reached 356, and the number of Palestinians injured has reached 909, Wafa news agency reported on Monday.

Israel's defence ministry announced the completion of a laser air defence system known as "Iron Beam", which will be deployed by the end of December.

"The Iron Beam laser system is expected to fundamentally change the rules of engagement on the battlefield," Daniel Gold, head of defence ministry research and development, told a defence summit in Tel Aviv.

The laser system is intended to improve Israel’s ability to intercept drones and other incoming threats, serving as an added layer alongside existing air-defence systems like the Iron Dome.

Dublin City Council has come under fire after suspending plans to remove the name of a former Israeli president from a public park.

The Irish capital's governing body on Monday was scheduled to debate a proposal to rename Herzog Park, named after Chaim Herzog, who was born in Belfast in Northern Ireland and grew up in Dublin before serving as Israeli president between 1983 and 1993. 

However, council chief executive Richard Shakespeare said on Sunday he was proposing to withdraw the item from Monday’s agenda and refer it back to the commemorations committee, saying that correct legislative procedures had not been followed.

Many pro-Palestinian campaigners have called for the park to be renamed after Hind Rajab, the six-year-old girl who was shot and killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in January 2024 after pleading with emergency services to rescue her. 

Read more: Campaigners slam Dublin council's decision to suspend plans to rename Herzog Park

An Egyptian imam is facing deportation from Italy for comments he made at a pro-Palestine rally in Turin on 9 October.

Mohamed Shahin, formerly an imam at Turin's San Salvario mosque, allegedly described the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October - which caused the deaths of 1,200 people - as an act of “resistance after years of occupation”. 

The 46-year-old, who has been resident in Italy for 21 years, was arrested in a dawn raid by counter-terrorism police on 24 November after the Ministry of Interior issued an expulsion order and revoked his residence permit.

Read more: Italy to deport Egyptian imam over comments at pro-Palestine rally

Like many areas across the occupied West Bank, Joseph’s Tomb has seen a spike in assaults by Israeli forces and settlers under the cover of the war on Gaza. 

The site - located near Nablus, which is nominally under Palestinian Authority administrative control - has long been a target of Israeli raids that frequently result in killing of Palestinians.

Since October 2023, the site has been subjected to larger and more frequent settler-led incursions, with groups entering the area alongside Israeli forces under a religious pretext.

The most recent incident occurred last week, when settlers were joined by 20 US lawmakers from the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL)  who praised the Israeli army and reaffirmed their support for Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.

Read more: Israeli raids stoke renewed takeover fears at West Bank's Joseph’s Tomb

Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinian police officers with an eye towards integrating them into a post-war security force in Gaza, a Palestinian official told AFP.

A first group of more than 500 officers were trained in Cairo in March and since September the two-month courses have resumed to welcome hundreds more people, the official said on condition of anonymity. 

He added that all members of the force will be from the Gaza Strip and paid by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority. 

"We received outstanding operational training, with modern equipment for border surveillance," said a Palestinian lieutenant who also requested anonymity for security reasons.

More than a third of Israelis favour granting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a pardon, according to two surveys released on Sunday.

A Kan public broadcaster poll found that 38 percent of respondents support pardoning Netanyahu, while 43 percent are opposed.

Channel 12 News reported a nearly identical level of support in its own survey. It found that support for a pardon increases from 36 to 38 percent if it is contingent on Netanyahu stepping away from political life.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Monday that he won't be influenced by "violent discourse" when he considers Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's request for a pardon on corruption charges.

The issue is "clearly provoking debate and is deeply unsettling for many people in the country, across different communities. I will consider solely the best interests of the State of Israel and Israeli society," Herzog said in a statement.

"One thing is clear to me: violent discourse does not influence me, on the contrary, respectful discourse provokes discussion and stimulates dialogue, and I invite the Israeli public to come to the president's house, the people's house, to express their opinion and respond accordingly," he added.

The president of the International Criminal Court said on Monday that US sanctions imposed on senior court officials disrupt their personal lives but vowed the institution would not yield to outside pressure.

President Donald Trump's administration slapped targeted sanctions on nine ICC officials, including prosecutors and judges, earlier this year in retaliation for investigations into suspected Israeli war crimes. Sources have said Washington is also mulling sanctions against the entire court.

"We never accept any kind of pressure from anyone on issues of interpretation of the statutory framework and adjudication of cases," Judge Tomoko Akane said on the first day of the annual meeting in The Hague of the court's governing body, made up of representatives of its 125 member states.

Akane said the sanctions had unsettled the family lives of targeted officials and disrupted their financial transactions, even in ICC member states in Europe.

The sanctions freeze any US assets the individuals may have and essentially cut them off from the US financial system, with which almost all internationally operating banks have close ties.

The ministry of health in Gaza reported that hospitals in the Gaza Strip received the bodies of nine Palestinians and one wounded person over the past 24 hours.

The report said Israeli attacks killed at least 356 Palestinians and wounded at least 909 others since the ceasefire on 10 October this year.

Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has killed 70,112 and wounded 170,986 people in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

Pope Leo prayed for peace in Lebanon and the region on Monday as he kicked off day two of his trip to the multi-confessional country with a visit to a famous pilgrimage site.

Thousands of people cheered, ululated and threw rice in celebration as Leo travelled in the popemobile up a winding road to a monastery in Annaya in the mountains north of Beirut which hosts the tomb of Saint Charbel, AFP reported.

Leo arrived from Turkey on Sunday on his inaugural visit abroad as pontiff and brought a message of hope, particularly to youth in Lebanon whose faith in their crisis-hit country has dwindled.

"For the world, we ask for peace. We especially implore it for Lebanon and for the entire Levant," he said.