Palestinian prisoners on long-term hunger strike agreed May 14 to a deal ending the strikes in exchange for improved conditions. The Egyptian-brokered deal to end the mass hunger strike in Israeli facilities will see the prisoners—including Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla on a 77-day strike—released at the end of their "administrative detention" terms. Four hunger strikers will be transferred to civilian hospitals within Israel for treatment. Hamas official Saleh Arouri, who was a member of the negotiations team, said that under the deal Israel agreed to provide a list of accusations to administrative detainees, or release them at the end of their term. Israel also agreed to release all detainees from solitary confinement, to lift a ban on family visits for detainees from the Gaza Strip, and revoke the "Shalit law." The "Shalit law" restricted prisoners' access to families and to educational materials as punishment for the five-year captivity of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Shalit was freed in October in a prisoner swap agreement. (Ma'an News Agency, May 16)

Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called on April 30 for a new intifada to support Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel, who started a mass hunger-strike two weeks ago. The Hamas premier urged Arab and Muslim nations to intervene to support detainees, in remarks at a rally for prisoners in Gaza City. The prime minister challenged human rights groups to "break their silence" and demand freedom for all Palestinians held in Israel. More than 4,000 Palestinians are currently imprisoned in Israel—around 320 of them without any charge. On April 17, marking Palestinian Prisoners Day, at least 1,200 prisoners in Israel launched an open-ended hunger strike, with prisoner groups estimating that 2,000 people are now refusing food. They are demanding improvements in living conditions, and an end to solitary confinement, night raids and bans on family visits for prisoners from Gaza. Prison authorities have responded by denying all striking inmates family visits, and separating them from the inmates not taking part in the protest. (Ma'an News Agency, April 30)

Israel's Supreme Court on April 29 ruled that buildings of the Givat HaUlpana settlement outpost at Beit El on the West Bank, ordered destroyed because of a claim by Palestinian land-owners, would receive a 60-day reprieve. The State Attorney's Office had filed the appeal on two days before, asking for a three-month delay in the scheduled demolition of the Ulpana outpost. The high court had earlier ordered the evacuation of the five apartment buildings by May 1 because they were built on land found to be private Palestinian property. Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, which helped the Palestinian claimants submit the petition against the outpost in 2008, has slammed the government for failing to raze the 30-apartment complex, which is inhabited by settler families. The stay is intended to allow time to find an "alternative solution."

UN agencies in the occupied West Bank said April 22 that Israel last week destroyed 21 homes of Palestinian Bedouin refugees—leaving 54 people homeless, including 35 children. A joint statement from the refugee agency UNRWA and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs condemned the April 18 demolition of the structures at Khalayleh north of Jerusalem, along with the removal the same day of refugees from two houses in East Jerusalem's Beit Hanina neighborhood. Ma'an News Agency reported that Jewish settlers moved into the homes the same day. A day later, Israeli forces demolished and confiscated emergency tents provided to the evicted Khalayleh families by humanitarian organizations, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the UN Relief and Works Agency said in a joint statement.

The Palestinian Authority Prisoners Ministry said that Israeli prison authorities stormed the cells of Palestinian prisoners on April 1, leaving 61 injured. The raid in Israel's Nafha facility came after prisoners refused to give DNA samples, the ministry said. Minister of Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqe asserted that every prisoner has the right to refuse forcible DNA testing. PA lawyers have filed a complaint with Israel's Supreme Court to demand the end of forced DNA tests for Palestinians jailed by Israel. (Ma'an News Agency, April 1)

On March 26, the US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in MBZ v. Clinton that the ability of a US national born in Jerusalem to list Israel as place of birth on a passport is not a political question, but remanded the case for a ruling specifically on the issue. The US State Department argued that this question was political because it informs the government's foreign policy toward recognition of Israel as sovereign over Jerusalem. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, disagreed, due to the suit being based on a statutory enactment by Congress:

It came to light in Israel last month that the Civil Administration in the West Bank has for years been covertly identifying and mapping available land, and naming the parcels after existing Jewish settlements, evidently with an eye toward expanding these communities. The new outposts are mostly "illegal" under Israeli law (although all the settlements are illegal under international law). The Civil Administration, part of the Defense Ministry, released its maps in response to a request from anti-settlement activist Dror Etkes under Israel's Freedom of Information Law. In some places the boundaries of the parcels outlined in the maps coincide with the route of the West Bank separation barrier.

Under pressure from UNESCO, Israel has agreed to remove the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb—two Jewish holy sites on the West Bank—from its list of "National Heritage Sites." This of course immediately sparked a backlash from Israel's religious right, with Science and Technology Minister Rabbi Professor Daniel Hershkowitz calling the omission "like denying our elementary heritage." (The Algemeiner, Feb. 1) Following recent clashes at Jerusalem's Temple Mount, Palestinian protesters also vented rage at the Rachel's Tomb site Feb. 21, hurling stones and prompting closure of the compound. Jewish visitors were evacuated by the Border Guard. (YNet, Feb. 21)