Israeli forces demolished the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Negev region of southern Israel for the 113th time since 2010 on May 17 morning, and for the fifth time this year. The head of the local council, Aziz al-Turi, told Ma'an News Agency that Israeli bulldozers accompanied by police forces raided the village and demolished the steel-structure makeshift homes "without any consideration for their residents." The last time Israeli forces razed homes in al-Araqib was only weeks ago, on April 25. "All demolition crimes will not scare us or stop us from rebuilding our homes and holding on to our lands," al-Araqib resident Sayyah al-Turi told Ma'an. "We will stay here despite the injustice and criminal demolitions, we will not submit to their plans of uprooting and displacing us."

An Israeli cabinet committee approved a contested bill on May 7 seeking to enshrine Israel's status as a Jewish state into the country's central legislation, sparking concern the heightened discrimination Palestinians would face should it become law. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted unanimously to move the "Jewish State" bill—which is also being referred to as the "Nationality" or "Nation State" bill—to a preliminary vote in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. The bill declares that Israel is "the national home of the Jewish people," and that "the right to realize self-determination in Israel is unique to the Jewish people," Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

Advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said May 1 that it has found new evidence that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in at least four recent attacks targeting civilians. The report, "Death by Chemicals: The Syrian Government's Widespread and Systematic Use of Chemical Weapons," states that local residents and activists in Khan Sheikhoun town identified at least 92 people who likely died from chemical exposure. It also named three pieces of additional evidence to support the finding that the government has been committing crimes against humanity:

The Hamas movement announced its new charter on May 1, presenting an acceptance of a Palestinian state along the 1967 "Green Line" border, while rejecting any legitimacy of "the Zionist entity," in reference to the state of Israel. "Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus," the charter read.

Speaking before the World Jewish Congress in New York April 23, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated: "A modern form of anti-Semitism is the denial of the right of the State of Israel to exist. As secretary-general of the United Nations, I can say that the State of Israel needs to be treated as any other state, with exactly the same rules." He said this "does not mean I will always be in agreement with all the decisions made by any government position taken by any government that sits in Israel," but that he supports "the absolutely undeniable right of Israel to exist and to live in peace and security with its neighbors."

More than 1,600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody launched an open-ended mass hunger strike on April 17, Palestinian Prisoners' Day, led by imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, under the banner of "Freedom and Dignity" for prisoners. Sources told Ma'an News Agency that prisoners had purged all food products from their cells and shaved their heads in Israel prisons from the north to the south, namely in the Gilboa, Hadarim, Ashkelon, Ktziot, Nafha, and Ramon prisons. In the southern occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, a number of activists in al-Duheisha refugee camp shaved their heads in solidarity with the hunger strikers, while a rally took place marking Prisoners' Day in the nearby Aida refugee camp that honored current and former prisoners from the camp.

The United Nations stated on March 24 that Israel has not yet taken any steps towards stopping illegal settlements in Palestinian territory. According to UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov, instead of working to halt the illegal settlements, Israel has authorized "a high rate" of settlements in contravention of international law. UNSC Resolution 2334 (PDF), which passed with a 14-0 vote at the end of 2016, called upon Israel to stop the development of these settlements "not only because they're illegal, but [also because] they are the main obstacle in the path of the two-state solution." Currently, there are 430,000 Israelis settled in the Palestinian West Bank and 200,000 Israeli's in East Jerusalem.

Israeli forces imposed heightened movement restrictions at the gates of al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem after a sit-in was organized at the site following Friday prayers to demand the release of the bodies of slain Palestinians withheld by the Israeli state. Head of media and public relations for the Islamic Endowment (Waqf), Firas Dibs, said that Israeli forces had raided al-Aqsa Mosque compound, while soldiers deployed at the gates of the holy site banned Palestinians from entering the area after the Dhuhur (afternoon) prayer. Dibs added that Israeli forces also searched all Palestinian youth "in a provocative manner" as they exited the compound following prayers and the subsequent sit-in.