From 7825bd001c0ff7cb95940bed543dcc078d5b9d20 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: John MacFarlane <jgm@berkeley.edu>
Date: Thu, 7 May 2026 12:09:04 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Markdown reader: don't produce empty Raw element with
 `--strip-comments`.

Closes #11625.
---
 src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/Markdown.hs | 8 ++++++--
 test/command/7521.md                | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/Markdown.hs b/src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/Markdown.hs
index 74e781781..f0f6744c6 100644
--- a/src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/Markdown.hs
+++ b/src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/Markdown.hs
@@ -1199,7 +1199,9 @@ rawHtmlBlocks = do
         return (return (B.rawBlock "html" $ stripMarkdownAttribute raw) <>
                 contents <>
                 return (B.rawBlock "html" rawcloser)))
-      <|> return (return (B.rawBlock "html" raw) <> contents)
+      <|> if T.all isSpace raw
+             then return mempty
+             else return (return (B.rawBlock "html" raw) <> contents)
   updateState $ \st -> st{ stateInHtmlBlock = oldInHtmlBlock }
   return result
 
@@ -2190,7 +2192,9 @@ rawHtmlInline = do
                              then (\x -> isInlineTag x &&
                                          not (isCloseBlockTag x))
                              else not . isTextTag
-  return $ return $ B.rawInline "html" result
+  return $ if T.all isSpace result
+              then return mempty
+              else return $ B.rawInline "html" result
 
 -- Emoji
 
diff --git a/test/command/7521.md b/test/command/7521.md
index 4a24f13e1..88d15b495 100644
--- a/test/command/7521.md
+++ b/test/command/7521.md
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 - two
 ^D
 <ul>
-<li>one </li>
+<li>one</li>
 <li>two</li>
 </ul>
 ```