‘Hello! This is Israeli intelligence’: The text message igniting fears of a crackdown when Gaza...

A text message from a local number flashed up on Omar’s* phone claiming to be Israeli intelligence informing him he would soon be arrested.

The young Palestinian had been asked to volunteer as a medic at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa compound as larger than normal crowds of worshippers were expected during the holy month of Ramadan.

But the simmering tensions which has gripped the contested city reached boiling last week, amid scenes of Israeli forces repeatedly storming the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, with stun grenades and teargas. Outside Palestinian protesters threw back rocks and bottles.