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)

Khader Adnan, the Palestinian who recently ended a 66-day hunger strike against his detention by Israel without charge or trial, is recovering well, but still remains in a precarious medical condition, according to a joint statement from the Palestinian prisoner support group Addameer and Physicians for Human Rights—Israel, which respectively sent a lawyer and doctor to visit him on the 23rd. That same day, news emerged that a Palestinian woman has begun her own hunger strike against her detention without charge or trial by Israel. Hana Yahya al-Shalabi spent more than two years in administrative detention, and had been freed in October as part of the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas. On Feb. 17, al-Shalabi, who is 29, was once again arrested by Israeli occupation forces from her home near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, and is again under detention without charge or trial. (Electronic Intifada, Feb. 23)

Hundreds of Muslim worshippers clashed with police Feb. 24 at Jerusalem's Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. Israeli authorities said that following Friday prayers, a large group of worshippers began hurling rocks at the controversial Mughrabi Bridge leading to the Mount. In a rare move, Israeli police came to the entrance of al-Aqsa Mosque, using tear gas and stun grenades to scatter the protesters. The clash caused confusion amongst the large crowd of worshippers gathered at the holy site. Authorities said 15 Palestinians and 11 police were injured, and four Palestinians were arrested. In light of scattered incidents at the Temple Mount this week, police had heightened their presence at the site on Friday morning. These were the most serious clashes at the Temple Mount since the recent wave of protests began two weeks ago.

A 69-year-old Palestinian man was killed and three others injured in an attack by the Israeli Air Force on tunnels and a weapons depot in the Gaza Strip on Feb. 12. The Israeli military released a statement saying its aircraft had struck four targets, including "a terror tunnel and a weapon manufacturing facility" near Gaza City. The strikes came in response to a short-range rocket that was launched from Gaza the previous day, wounding an Israeli woman, the statement said. No faction took credit for the rocket attack. Hamas, Gaza's ruling Islamist movement, has tried to rein in attacks on Israel as it seeks political accommodation with the secular Fatah movement that controls the Palestinian Authority. (Ha'aretz, Feb. 12)

Palestinian detainee Khader Adnan has been on hunger strike since Dec. 17, and Physicians for Human Rights now say that his life is at risk. This was also acknowledged by the Israeli Prison Service, which has transferred him from military detention on the West Bank to Ziv hospital in northern Israel, and said he had agreed to take potassium pills. Adnan, believed to be a leader of Islamic Jihad, is refusing all food in protest of his ill-treatment and his arbitrary detention without charge or trial—known as "administrative detention." His wife, Randa, who saw him for the first time since his detention Feb. 7 described his condition as rapidly deteriorating, and that he has lost a third of his weight and his hair. Amnesty International said Israel must release Adnan or charge him with a recognizable criminal offense and promptly try him.