Gaza Strip

Jerusalem is bracing for a controversial "flag march" by Israelis on Sunday that has sparked warnings of a new escalation from Palestinian factions.

The "March of the Flags" threatens to exacerbate weeks of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, and comes as Israel marks "Jerusalem Day", commemorating the city's unification following the capture of east Jerusalem in 1967.

A Palestinian farmer found a rare 4,500-year-old stone sculpture while working his land in the southern Gaza Strip, ruling Hamas authorities announced on April 25.

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said the 22-centimeter tall limestone head is believed to represent the Canaanite goddess Anat and is estimated to be dated to around 2,500 B.C.

Israeli tanks fired into southern Lebanon early Monday in response to a rocket fired from the country, the Israeli military said.

Israel carried out its first air strikes on the Gaza Strip in months early Tuesday in response to a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave as tensions soar after a weekend of violence around a Jerusalem holy site.

Warning sirens sounded in southern Israel Monday night after the rocket was fired from the enclave controlled by the Hamas, the first such incident since early January.

Israeli police have entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a sensitive Jerusalem holy site, two days after clashes with Palestinians.

The police cleared Palestinians out of the sprawling esplanade outside the mosque itself early Sunday, while dozens of Palestinians remained inside the building chanting "God is Greatest."

Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police clashed at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on April 14 morning, medics and witnesses said.

"Seven injured people were taken to hospital to be treated for upper body injuries," a member of the Palestinian Red Crescent told AFP.

After years of behind-the-scenes activity in the Gaza Strip, Egypt is going public.

Since mediating a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group, Egypt has sent crews to clear rubble and is promising to build vast new apartment complexes. Egyptian flags and billboards praising President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi have sprung up across the Palestinian territory.

Bulldozers digging for an Egyptian-funded housing project in the Gaza Strip unearthed the ruins of a tomb dating back to the Roman era, Hamas authorities said on Jan. 31.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will pay an official visit to Turkey in February, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on Jan. 26, hailing it as a chance to mend frayed relations with the Jewish state.

The remains of a fifth century Byzantine church were unveiled in Gaza on Jan. 24 following a three-year restoration project, with the strip's Hamas Islamist rulers touting an embrace of their "Christian brothers."

The remains of a church and monastery were first discovered in Jabalia, a city in northern Gaza, in 1997 over an area spanning roughly 800 square meters.