A bilingual and integrated Jewish-Arab school in Israel has won a global education prize in recognition of its efforts to heal longstanding divisions.

The Max Rayne Hand In Hand Jerusalem School – where Jewish and Arab students learn together in both Hebrew and Arabic – has been crowned winner of the T4 Education World’s Best School prize for overcoming adversity.

It comes as thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have been killed and hundreds of Israelis have been taken hostage by the militants in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war broke out nearly a month ago.

The leadership of the Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School reflects the diversity of its student body, with an Arab elementary school principal and a Jewish secondary school principal.

There is also equal representation of Jewish and Arab staff, who work closely together to create an inclusive learning environment for all the students.

Dani Elazar, chief executive of Hand in Hand – which runs a network of bilingual, multicultural Jewish-Arab schools in Israel, said: “Winning an award as ‘the best school in the world’ would normally be a cause for celebration.

“With a war waging and thousands of precious lives lost, this is not the time for celebration. It is the time for resolution.

“We resolve to continue overcoming adversity, day by day, for the sake of a better future for all, Jews and Arabs alike. Overcoming adversity is precisely what the Max Rayne Hand in Hand School is doing at this very moment.

“We hope that the conferral of this award will raise people’s awareness that there is an alternative to hatred and fear. All children of this land deserve a better future. Together is the only way we will achieve it.”

Cadoxton Primary School in Barry, south Wales, reached the final three for the overcoming adversity category – but missed out to the school in Jerusalem.

The winners of the five World’s Best prizes – for community collaboration, environmental action, innovation, overcoming adversity, and supporting healthy lives – will all receive 50,000 US dollars (£40,000).

The Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School intends to use the prize money to support its unique co-teaching model and to raise awareness of the values of shared society and equality among a wider audience.

Vikas Pota, founder of T4 Education, said: “My deepest congratulations to The Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School. In dark times, you shine a light.

“By healing longstanding divisions between Jews and Arabs through the transformative power of education, you show that there is a path to understanding and with it peace.

“Educators across the world should look to the example of your school in the difference you have made to so many lives. And governments must look to the trailblazing work you have done as they seek answers to the great challenges we face today. Where you lead, they must follow.”

Last year, Dunoon Grammar School, a state secondary school in Scotland, was crowned winner of the global prize for community collaboration.

A teenager has died and at least 18 others have been hurt after two explosions near bus stops in Jerusalem, in what police said were suspected attacks by Palestinians.

The first blast occurred near a bus stop on the edge of the city, where many commuters gather during rush hour. The second detonation took place in Ramot, a neighbourhood in the city’s north.

The victim was identified as 15-year-old Aryeh Shechopek, who was heading to a Jewish seminary when the blast went off, according to a notice announcing his death.

The apparent attacks came as Israeli-Palestinian tensions are high, following months of Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank prompted by a spate of deadly attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people. There has been a surge in Palestinian attacks in recent weeks.

The violence also comes as former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds coalition talks after national elections and is likely to form what is expected to be Israel’s most right-wing government.

Police said their initial findings showed that explosive devices were placed at the two sites. The twin blasts occurred amid the buzz of rush hour traffic and police closed part of a main highway leading out of the city, where the first explosion went off.

Video from shortly after the first blast showed debris strewn along the pavement as the wail of ambulances blared.

Yosef Haim Gabay, a medic who was at the scene when the first blast occurred, told Israeli Army Radio:

“It was a crazy explosion. There is damage everywhere here.

“I saw people with wounds bleeding all over the place.”

While Palestinians have carried out stabbings, car rammings and shootings in recent years, bombings have become very rare since the end of a Palestinian uprising nearly two decades ago.

The Islamic militant Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and once carried out suicide bombings against Israelis, praised the perpetrators of the attacks, calling it a heroic operation, but stopped short of claiming responsibility.

Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanua said: “The occupation is reaping the price of its crimes and aggression against our people.”

Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extremist legislator who has called for the death penalty for Palestinian attackers and who is set to become the minister in charge of police under Mr Netanyahu, said the attack gave him the impetus to take a tougher stance on Palestinian attackers.

“It’s time to take a hard line against terrorists, it’s time to make order,” he tweeted.

More than 130 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006. The Israeli army said most of the Palestinians killed have been militants.

However, stone-throwing youths protesting against the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.

At least five more Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks in recent weeks.

Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett is not changing the norms at a contested site in Jerusalem to allow Jewish prayer there, his office said, following comments that sparked angry reactions a day earlier.

Mr Bennett, Israel’s new premier, had raised concerns on Sunday when he said Israel was committed to protecting “freedom of worship” for Jews at the hilltop compound.

Under a long-standing practice, Jews are allowed to visit, but not pray, at the site, which they revere as the Temple Mount and which Muslims hold sacred as the home of the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Palestinians and the site’s Islamic authorities fear that Israel is slowly trying to take control of the area and have complained in the past that Jews continued to pray at the site.

Friction remains high there after unrest helped spark the 11-day Israel-Hamas war in May.

Despite Mr Bennett’s phrasing, the status quo holds, according to an official in the prime minister’s office.

The clarification came after a tense day in which hundreds of Jewish pilgrims visited the compound under heavy police guard to mark Tisha B’Av, a day of mourning and repentance when Jews reflect on the destruction of the First and Second Temples.

The hilltop compound, they believe, is where the biblical Temples once stood and is the holiest site in Judaism.

Muslims revere the site as the Noble Sanctuary, home to the Al Aqsa Mosque and the third-holiest site in Islam.

Earlier Sunday, Muslim worshippers briefly clashed with Israeli security forces at the flashpoint shrine.

No injuries were reported, but the incident again raised tensions.

It came just days before Muslims celebrate the festival of Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice.

A total of 44 people have been arrested and 20 Israeli police officers were injured on a night of chaos in Jerusalem, as security forces clashed with Palestinians angry about Ramadan restrictions and Jewish extremists who held an anti-Arab march nearby.

Tensions have risen in recent days in Jerusalem, which has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and is home to holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Residents braced for possible further unrest ahead of Muslim Friday prayers as police stepped up security measures.

Palestinians have clashed with Israeli police on a nightly basis since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The tensions began when police placed barricades outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate, where Muslims traditionally gather to enjoy the evening after the daytime fast.

Later on Thursday, hundreds of Palestinians hurled stones and bottles at police, who fired water cannon and stun grenades to disperse them.

Dozens of Palestinians were injured during the unrest.

Meanwhile, a far-right Jewish group known as Lahava led a march of hundreds of protesters chanting “Arabs get out” toward the Damascus Gate.

The show of force came in response to videos circulated on TikTok showing Palestinians slapping religious Jews at random. Other videos made in response to them appear to show Jews assaulting Arabs.

Police used metal barricades to halt the far-right protesters a few hundred yards from Damascus Gate.

Later, they used water cannon, stun grenades and mounted police to push them back toward mostly Jewish west Jerusalem.

Videos circulated online showed smaller clashes and fires elsewhere in the city.

One video showed what appeared to be a group of Palestinians beating an ultra-Orthodox Jew near Damascus Gate.

They could be seen punching, kicking and throwing the man to the ground before police chased them off.

The police statement did not specify whether those arrested were Palestinian or Jewish and did not refer to any specific instances of violence.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not recognised by most of the international community.

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. Its fate has been one of the most divisive issues in the peace process, which ground to a halt more than a decade ago.

Thousands of Palestinians were expected to attend weekly prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City later on Friday.

The site is the third holiest in Islam and the holiest for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.

The sprawling hilltop holy site has been the scene of clashes on a number of occasions over the years, and was the epicentre of the 2000 Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

Some 20,000 people turned out on Thursday for Jerusalem’s annual Gay Pride parade, flanked by police officers after threats by some Jewish activists to disrupt the celebration.

They waved rainbow flags and a few Israeli ones with rainbow motifs as they processed through the Jewish part of Jerusalem on a march that went off largely without incident.

Ultra-Orthodox right-wing Jewish protesters, who were kept on the sidelines well away from the march, held up banners, including one that read: “Do not anger the God of Israel.”

In 2015, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man stabbed a 16-year-old girl to death and wounded five others and was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison. A rally at the end of Thursday’s parade opened with a minute’s silence to honour the girl, Shira Banki.

Parade participants protested against legislation enacted last month that denies gay male couples equal rights for support in surrogacy.

“I think this surrogacy law is a symbol of inequality and (shows) that the government has still failed to realise that the LGBTQ community in Israel is equal to anybody,” said Ofer Erez of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance which organised the parade.

“We are here today to stop asking for equality and start demanding it.”

Church leaders in Jerusalem shut the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Sunday in protest at a new Israeli tax policy and a proposed land expropriation law which they called an unprecedented attack on Christians in the Holy Land.

Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian church leaders said the holy site, a popular stop for pilgrims and where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried, would remain closed until further notice.

After the protest move, an Israeli cabinet committee delayed by a week its scheduled consideration on Sunday of a bill that would allow the state to expropriate land in Jerusalem sold by churches to private real estate firms in recent years.

The stated aim of the bill is to protect homeowners against the possibility that private companies will not extend their leases of land on which their houses or apartments stand.

The churches are major property owners in the city. They say such a law would make it harder for them to find buyers for church-owned land – sales that help to cover operating costs of their religious institutions.

“This abhorrent bill … if approved, would make the expropriation of the lands of churches possible,” said the statement by Theophilos III, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Francesco Patton, the Custos of the Holy Land, and Nourhan Manougian, the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Rachel Azaria, the lawmaker who sponsored the legislation, said in a statement she agreed to delay the committee’s discussion by a week so that “we could work with the churches” to try to resolve the dispute.

The churches’ protest was also aimed at the recent cancellation by Israel’s Jerusalem municipality of a tax exemption it has granted to church-owned commercial properties in the city.

“This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during dark periods in Europe,” the church leaders said.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said on Twitter it was illogical to expect that church-owned commercial property, including hotels and retail businesses, would continue to enjoy tax-exempt status.

“Let me make it clear: we are not talking about houses of worship, who will still be exempt from property tax, according to law,” he wrote.

Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, pilgrims voiced their disappointment at finding its doors shut.

“I am very upset. It’s my first time here and I made a big effort to get here and now I find it closed,” said Marine Domenech from Lille, France.

President Donald Trump will visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, the White House said on Monday amid controversy in Israel over reported comments by a U.S. diplomat that the wall was in the occupied West Bank.

Trump will say a prayer at the Western Wall, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said, as well as pay a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, considered by Christians to be the site of Jesus’ tomb.

The wall, representing the remains of the Jewish Second Temple, sits on territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and has been a flashpoint of violence in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Israel will be the second stop on Trump’s first foreign trip, following Saudi Arabia. The Republican president will meet with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

The announcement of Trump’s visit to the Jewish holy site came amid the controversy in Israel over a report that a U.S. diplomat preparing Trump’s visit referred to the Western Wall as being part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel’s Channel 2 reported that during a planning meeting between U.S. and Israeli officials, the Israelis were told that Trump’s visit to the wall was private, Israel did not have jurisdiction in the area and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not welcome to accompany Trump there.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem as its indivisible capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally.

An official in Netanyahu’s office said on Monday that Israel has contacted Washington about the matter.

Asked about the matter, a White House official told Reuters on Tuesday: “These comments were not authorized by the White House. They do not reflect the U.S. position and certainly not the president’s position.”

McMaster sidestepped questions on Tuesday about whether the Trump administration considers the Western Wall part of Israel.

Pedestrians and traffic in downtown Jerusalem, and across Israel, stood still Monday morning (April 24) as a two minute siren wailed to commemorate victims of the Holocaust.

A day earlier, survivor Zwi Nigal shared his experiences during World War Two with a few dozen people who gathered in an apartment in central Israel on Sunday (April 23), the eve of the country’s annual Remembrance Day for the six million Jews killed by the Nazis.

Sitting on bean bags and a sofa, they listened to Nigal’s account as part of a nationwide project called “Memories in the Living Room”.

Similar remembrance gatherings were held in 13,000 other homes in Israel, where survivors shared their stories. Ayelet Goldin Vaknin, who hosted the gathering with Nigal in her living room, said such events could be the last chance “to meet in person with people who have been there and who have experienced personally the Holocaust”.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Monday, Netanyahu’s office said, as the new administration tries to restart peace talks with the Palestinians.

A statement from the Israeli leader’s office said Jason Greenblatt “reaffirmed President Trump’s commitment to Israel’s security and to the effort to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve a lasting peace through direct negotiations.”

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been frozen since 2014 and the Palestinians have been concerned at the more favourable approach shown by Washington towards Netanyahu since Trump came to office in January.

The statement added that during a conversation lasting more than five hours, Netanyahu and Greenblatt discussed Israel’s settlement building “with the hope of reaching a formula that will aim to promote peace and security.”

One of the most heated issues between Israel and the Palestinians is Israel’s building of settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory the Palestinians want for their own future state along with the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, Trump spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and invited him to the White House. It was the first phone call between the two leaders since Trump took office. Greenblatt is set to meet Abbas in the West Bank on Tuesday.

The Israeli statement added that “Greenblatt stressed how important enabling the growth of the Palestinian economy and improving the quality of life for Palestinians are to President Trump.”

Before taking office, Trump named Greenblatt, his company’s top lawyer, as his special negotiator for trade deals and other talks and his adviser to the Middle East and special representative for international negotiations.

The White House said on Sunday that it is only in the early stages of talks to fulfil President Donald Trump’s pledge to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, an action that would likely spark anger in the Arab world.

“We are at the very beginning stages of even discussing this subject,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said in a statement. Aides said no announcement of an embassy move was imminent.

Washington’s embassy is in Tel Aviv, as are most foreign diplomatic posts. Israel calls Jerusalem its eternal capital, but Palestinians also lay claim to the city as part of an eventual Palestinian state. Both sides cite biblical, historical and political claims.

Trump, who vowed during the 2016 presidential campaign to move the embassy, was due to speak by phone on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, their first call since the U.S. businessman-turned-politician took office on Friday.

Any decision to break with the status quo is likely to prompt protests from U.S. allies in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. Washington relies on those countries for help in fighting the Islamic State militant group, which the new U.S. president has said is a priority.

The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1995 describing Jerusalem as capital of Israel and saying it should not be divided, but successive Republican and Democratic presidents have used their foreign policy powers to maintain the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and to back negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on the status of Jerusalem.

In early December, then-President Barack Obama renewed the presidential waiver until the beginning of June. It is unclear whether Trump would be able to legally override that waiver and go ahead with relocation of the embassy.

U.S. diplomats say that, despite the U.S. legislation, Washington’s foreign policy is in practice broadly aligned with that of the United Nations and other major powers, which do not view Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and do not recognise Israel’s annexation of Arab East Jerusalem after its capture in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel approved building permits on Sunday for hundreds of homes in three East Jerusalem settlements in expectation that Trump will row back on the previous administration’s criticism of such projects.