Four Holy Cities

Thousands of Palestinian Christians and pilgrims from around the world filled Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday to celebrate the Orthodox Holy Light ceremony, under a heavy Israeli police presence that has drawn anger from churches.

Israel's Supreme Court has ruled against the Greek Orthodox Church in a long-running legal battle over the sale of three properties in predominantly Palestinian parts of Jerusalem's Old City to a Jewish settler group.

The executive committee of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is scheduled to have an emergency meeting in Istanbul on Aug. 1 at the foreign ministers level. They are due to discuss the recent al-Aksa Mosque tension with Israel, following a call by Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan.

Israeli police barred men under 50 from entering Jerusalem's Old City for Friday Muslim prayers as tensions rose and protests erupted over new security measures at a highly sensitive holy site.

Three gunmen opened fire at police near Jerusalem's holiest site on July 14, wounding three Israelis, two of them critically, before the attackers were killed by security forces, Israeli police said.
   

Palestinians clashed with Israeli police at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Sept. 13 just hours before the start of the Jewish New Year, police and witnesses said.