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Parents at Palo Alto High School in California are suing the school for taking students on a field trip to a mosque, where students were allegedly pushed to wear hijabs and given Qurans.
The trip was part of the school’s “Social Justice Pathway” and the trip framed Islam as aligned with social work, The New York Post reports.
The parents’ children are Jewish, Hindu and Zoroastrian, the report says.
The lawsuit is brought by a group called the Plaintiff Community Members for Religious Neutrality in Public Schools.
The Palo Alto Unified School District and the high school principle are also named in the lawsuit.
The students on the trip also met Zahra Billoo of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, the report says.
Billoo has a history of extremist statements against “Zionists.”
A school administrator tells The San Francisco Chronicle that, according to the school district’s policy, says that lessons about religion must be neutral, academic, and not devotional, and would not comment on pending litigation.
Settlers torched fields on the outskirts of the central West Bank Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya on Monday evening, the official Palestinian Authority Wafa news outlet reports.
Palestinian media also reports that the IDF held up a Palestinian ambulance that was trying to reach the village in order to put out the fire.
There was no immediate comment from the IDF.
فلسطين.. النيران تلتهم سهل بلدة ترمسعيا شمال رام الله بعد إشعالها من قبل مستوطنين pic.twitter.com/2Ua4Q65omL
— التلفزيون العربي (@AlarabyTV) August 17, 2026
Turmus Ayya has been one of the Palestinian villages most frequently targeted by settlers, who have established several illegal outposts nearby. The vast majority of the village’s residents hold American citizenship, but they knocked the US government for not doing enough to protect them from the Israeli attacks, which go largely unpunished.
The alleged attack in Turmus Ayya was one of several that took place on Monday evening alone, according to Wafa.
Settlers also raided the northern West Bank Palestinian village of Beita and hurled stones at residents, injuring two of them, Wafa says.
On a road outside the West Bank city of Bethlehem, settlers held up a Palestinian vehicle at gunpoint and proceeded to pepper spray the passengers inside the car, including a young child, according to Arabic media reports.
There are no reports of arrests.
Just another horrific day under Israeli settler terrorism in the West Bank.
Israeli settler terrorists pepper-sprayed Palestinian children after stopping their vehicle and pointing weapons at them on Abu Njeim Road, south of Bethlehem. pic.twitter.com/ghMAiYSOFf
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) August 17, 2026
IDF soldiers are still using markers to tag Palestinians on their bodies after it assured reporters several months ago that the practice was inappropriate and would cease.
A Palestinian interrogated by troops during a raid of the northern West Bank village of Qabatiya on Monday spoke to Palestinian media with the number 44 still seen on his forehead.
He says troops marked him along with others that it interrogated during its raid of the village.
Mr. No. 44 speaks about his arrest by the army.
The army writes numbers on the skin of young men from the West Bank for identification and interrogation. pic.twitter.com/Zbk2eEdSej
— Abo Bashar ابو بشار (@abomoamar) August 17, 2026
During the interrogation, the Qabatiya resident says troops warned him not to take part in clashes against settlers if the latter raids the village. Such settler incursions have become common throughout the West Bank, where violence by Israeli extremists has gone largely unchecked.
A similar incident unfolded in April, when Israeli troops used a marker to tag the hands of Palestinians it was allowing to briefly return to the Jenin refugee camp to gather their belongings.
The IDF has been conducting a counterterror operation in the camp for months, displacing thousands of Palestinians who were living there.
The army said troops were trying to maintain an orderly return of the residents to the refugee camp, which the IDF has divided into sections that it identifies by a number and a letter.
The IDF claimed writing the section of the camp to which each resident was from on their respective hand was the Palestinians’ idea.
Still, “this was a case of poor judgment,” the army said in a statement, insisting that proper conduct has been clarified and that lessons have been learned after
critics accused the IDF of dehumanizing Palestinians.
After the latest incident unfolded in Qabatiya, a military source acknowledges to The Times of Israel that the soldiers involved acted inappropriately and that steps would be taken to address what happened.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged US President Donald Trump in a Monday phone call to pursue talks with Iran to de-escalate tensions between the two countries, and offered Ankara’s support for peace efforts, the Turkish presidency says.
Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and borders Iran, has repeatedly called for an end to the war. It has maintained close contact with the United States, Iran, and mediators such as Pakistan and Qatar, while also acting as an intermediary between the parties.
“Erdogan stated that it is of great importance to make the utmost of diplomacy regarding the tensions between Iran and the United States, that we hope the talks will continue, and that Turkey will continue to support peace efforts,” the presidency says in a statement.
The call comes after a senior Iranian official told Reuters earlier on Monday that Iran would shift to a “fully offensive” military posture because efforts to negotiate a permanent end to the war have stalled, as Washington ruled out extending a temporary ceasefire agreement.
Progress towards a resumption of oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has also stalled.
Turkey has criticised the US and Israeli assault on Iran, while also condemning the Iranian attacks on Gulf states and calling for the re-opening of the strategic strait.
On Monday, Turkey’s foreign minister discussed the strait’s re-opening and the continuation of the ceasefire with his Iranian counterpart.
The presidency adds that Erdogan and Trump also discussed bilateral ties, the war in Gaza, and a defence pact signed between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, adding that the Turkish leader praised the accord as a sign of a “strong stance” for regional stability and security.
It says Erdogan told Trump that Israel’s attacks on Palestinians had increased at a time when the second phase of Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan was supposed to come into effect.
The White House does not immediately respond to a request for comment on the call.
US special envoy Jared Kushner says conversations between the US and different areas of the Iranian government have probably been more robust than ever, but the two sides have not yet reached an understanding.
Kushner tells Fox News that Trump is currently focused on maintaining economic pressure against Iran, through the US blockade of Iranian ports and other means.
“If Iran is willing to finish the deal that they’ve been discussing with us to give up their ability to create a nuclear weapon, then [Trump] wants to make a deal that could be great for the Iranian people,” he continues. “But right now they’re not showing any interest in doing something that makes sense for us.”
“President Trump is going to be very patient. He doesn’t want to rush you a deal. He’ll make the right deal when the right deal is ready. But we are having very positive and active conversations,” Kushner adds.
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Parents of Jewish, Hindu, and Zoroastrian students at Palo Alto High School in California are suing the school, its district, and the principal over a field trip to a mosque. The lawsuit, filed by the Plaintiff Community Members for Religious Neutrality in Public Schools, alleges students were pressured to wear hijabs and given Qurans during the trip, which was part of the school's "Social Justice Pathway." The trip reportedly presented Islam as aligned with social work and included a meeting with Zahra Billoo of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, who has a history of "extremist statements against Zionists." A school administrator stated that district policy requires religious lessons to be "neutral, academic, and not devotional," but declined to comment on the pending litigation.
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