Israeli Border Police officers on Tuesday uncovered an ancient burial cave beneath a building in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan during an operation related to a violent dispute between local families, police said.

Israel Antiquities Authority experts who examined the site have tentatively dated the graves to the Second Temple period, which lasted from 516 BCE to 70 CE.

נחשפו מערת קבורה עתיקה וממצאים ארכיאולוגיים במהלך פעילות מבצעית בסילוואן

גם היום נמשכת הפעילות המבצעית של כוחות מחוז ירושלים במסגרת הסכסוך האלים בין משפחות בכפר סילוואן שבפאתי העיר, במטרה להגיע לבתיהם של כל המעורבים.

בתוך כך, לוחמי מג״ב ירושלים ערכו סריקות בסילוואן וליוו נציגי… pic.twitter.com/MuWm96YexA

— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) August 24, 2026

Police and Border Police officers secured the site as antiquities officials continued examining the archaeological finds.

The IAA announced in July that archaeologists had uncovered a rare mold used to cast the face of a female figurine dating to the First Temple period—the first production mold of its kind ever found in Jerusalem. The mold was found during excavations at the Kishle, a former Ottoman-era prison on the grounds of the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Other recent excavations in Jerusalem’s City of David have uncovered massive charred wooden beams believed to have collapsed during the Babylonian destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE.