Some Israelis chant, ‘Death to Arabs’ and ‘May your village burn,’ as they march through Jerusalem’s Old City.

Right-wing Israelis in Jerusalem have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and a United Nations facility for Palestinian refugees as an annual march took place marking Israel’s conquest of the eastern part of the city.

Some Israelis chanted, “Death to Arabs” and “May your village burn,” as they marched through the alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday, going through the Muslim quarter to mark “Jerusalem Day”, which commemorates the Israeli occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem after the 1967 war.

Thousands of heavily armed police and border police were dispatched in advance because settlers regularly assault, attack and harass Palestinians and shops in the Muslim quarter. The settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.

Groups of young people, some carrying Israeli flags, were seen on Monday confronting Palestinian shopkeepers, passers-by and schoolchildren as well as Israeli rights activists and police, at times spitting on people, lobbing insults and trying to force their way into houses.

Police detained at least two youths, according to AFP journalists at the scene.

A small group of those rallying, including an Israeli member of parliament, stormed a compound in East Jerusalem belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

Israel has banned the agency from working in occupied Palestinian territory and in Israel, impacting the life-saving work that it has been carrying out for more than 70 years in areas that include the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip.

UNRWA West Bank coordinator Roland Friedrich said about a dozen Israeli protesters, including Yulia Malinovsky, one of the legislators behind an Israeli law that banned UNRWA, entered the compound, climbing its main gate in view of Israeli police.

Last year’s procession, held during the first year of Israel’s assault on Gaza, saw ultranationalist Israelis attack a Palestinian journalist in the Old City and call for violence against Palestinians. And four years ago, the march contributed to the outbreak of an 11-day war in Gaza.

Earlier on Monday, Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and other politicians were among more than 2,000 Israelis who stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and surrounding areas.

Ben-Gvir released a video on his X account from the site – Islam’s third holiest – saying he “prayed for victory in the war, for the return of all our hostages, and for the success of the newly-appointed head of the Shin Bet – Major General David Zini”.

Negev and Galilee Minister Yitzhak Vaserlauf and Knesset member Yitzhak Kreuzer were among those accompanying the ultranationalist minister.

Backed by armed police, Ben-Gvir has carried out similar provocative moves in the compound before, often at sensitive junctures in Israel’s war on Gaza, to advocate for increased military pressure and to block all humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

The Jerusalem Waqf – the Islamic authority that oversees the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) – decried the storming of the compound by Ben-Gvir and other members of the Israeli Knesset and called for a halt to all “provocative activities” in the area.

Under the management of the Jordan-appointed Waqf, only Muslims are allowed to pray at the compound.

Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said the march is aimed at asserting Israeli dominance over the city.

“Videos show Israeli citizens inside the Old City of Jerusalem attacking Palestinian shops and throwing objects at them,” Ibrahim said, reporting from Doha, Qatar as Al Jazeera has been banned from reporting in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem.

“This is again a reminder that no one has immunity.”

Austria’s former chancellor Sebastian Kurz has won his appeal against a conviction for giving false testimony to a parliamentary committee.

The court’s ruling overturns last year’s judgement and eight-month suspended prison sentence for the former political star.

Once hailed a wunderkind of Europe’s conservatives, the 38-year-old resigned as chancellor in 2021 and quit politics amid a series of allegations.

Monday’s acquittal removes a key obstacle to a potential political comeback, but he still faces investigation on separate corruption allegations.

Last year, Kurz was found guilty of perjury for giving false testimony to a parliamentary committee.

The case against him centred over allegations that he had been involved in the selection of executives on a newly-created state holding company when he was chancellor, as opposed to being merely kept informed.

Kurz told a parliamentary probe in 2020 that he was “involved in the sense of informed”. But the first trial judge deemed that declaration false and ruled that Kurz had played a more active role.

However in his appeal Kurz argued that the judge who had convicted him was biased.

The appeal bench of three judges ruled in his favour on Monday, reading out in their judgement that Kurz “was acquitted because the objective offence of giving false evidence was not fulfilled”.

Speaking to reporters outside court on Monday, Kurz said the years of accusations against him had “now all collapsed”.

“There have been numerous court hearings – a huge amount of confrontation with these accusations. You have all witnessed how much this has been celebrated and that it has now all collapsed,” he said.

He has also denied wrongdoing on the corruption allegations for which he is being investigated.

Prosecutors are yet to decide whether to charge him over the allegations that he used public money to pay for favourable media coverage and to fund polls which exaggerated support for him.

Kurz has not publicly voiced an intention to return to politics yet.

Since quitting in 2021, he has been involved in several business ventures including the high-profile Dream cybsersecurity company, which he co-founded in 2023 with partners including the former boss of Israel’s NSO firm that developed the controversial Pegasus spyware product.

Kurz had previously headed the conservative Austrian’s People’s Party, leading the party to victories in 2017 and 2019 on a hardline immigration stance.

The People’s Party is still in charge in Austria after it managed to form a three-party coalition with the Social Democrats and a liberal party after elections last September.

However that vote was won by the far-right Freedom Party, who seized on voter frustrations on the economy and migration. Despite topping parliamentary elections for the first time, they failed to form government.

After a long fight against leukaemia, three-year-old Ali Asaf Demir is now cancer-free. Thousands of people in Istanbul heeded his father’s call on social media to gather to release balloons in celebration of his return to health.