diff --git a/cmd/hook.go b/cmd/hook.go
index 6e31710caf..e8a8b1f4ad 100644
--- a/cmd/hook.go
+++ b/cmd/hook.go
@@ -290,8 +290,22 @@ Gitea or set your environment appropriately.`, "")
 	return nil
 }
 
+// runHookUpdate avoid to do heavy operations on update hook because it will be
+// invoked for every ref update which does not like pre-receive and post-receive
 func runHookUpdate(c *cli.Context) error {
+	if isInternal, _ := strconv.ParseBool(os.Getenv(repo_module.EnvIsInternal)); isInternal {
+		return nil
+	}
+
 	// Update is empty and is kept only for backwards compatibility
+	if len(os.Args) < 3 {
+		return nil
+	}
+	refName := git.RefName(os.Args[len(os.Args)-3])
+	if refName.IsPull() {
+		// ignore update to refs/pull/xxx/head, so we don't need to output any information
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
 	return nil
 }
 
diff --git a/tests/integration/git_push_test.go b/tests/integration/git_push_test.go
index da254fc88f..dc0b52203a 100644
--- a/tests/integration/git_push_test.go
+++ b/tests/integration/git_push_test.go
@@ -6,8 +6,10 @@ package integration
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"net/url"
+	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
+	auth_model "code.gitea.io/gitea/models/auth"
 	"code.gitea.io/gitea/models/db"
 	git_model "code.gitea.io/gitea/models/git"
 	"code.gitea.io/gitea/models/unittest"
@@ -192,3 +194,23 @@ func runTestGitPush(t *testing.T, u *url.URL, gitOperation func(t *testing.T, gi
 
 	require.NoError(t, repo_service.DeleteRepositoryDirectly(db.DefaultContext, user, repo.ID))
 }
+
+func TestPushPullRefs(t *testing.T) {
+	onGiteaRun(t, func(t *testing.T, u *url.URL) {
+		baseAPITestContext := NewAPITestContext(t, "user2", "repo1", auth_model.AccessTokenScopeWriteRepository, auth_model.AccessTokenScopeWriteUser)
+
+		u.Path = baseAPITestContext.GitPath()
+		u.User = url.UserPassword("user2", userPassword)
+
+		dstPath := t.TempDir()
+		doGitClone(dstPath, u)(t)
+
+		cmd := git.NewCommand(git.DefaultContext, "push", "--delete", "origin", "refs/pull/2/head")
+		stdout, stderr, err := cmd.RunStdString(&git.RunOpts{
+			Dir: dstPath,
+		})
+		assert.Error(t, err)
+		assert.Empty(t, stdout)
+		assert.False(t, strings.Contains(stderr, "[deleted]"), "stderr: %s", stderr)
+	})
+}
diff --git a/tests/test_utils.go b/tests/test_utils.go
index 66a287ecad..6f9592b204 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils.go
+++ b/tests/test_utils.go
@@ -223,6 +223,7 @@ func PrepareTestEnv(t testing.TB, skip ...int) func() {
 			_ = os.MkdirAll(filepath.Join(setting.RepoRootPath, ownerDir.Name(), repoDir.Name(), "objects", "info"), 0o755)
 			_ = os.MkdirAll(filepath.Join(setting.RepoRootPath, ownerDir.Name(), repoDir.Name(), "refs", "heads"), 0o755)
 			_ = os.MkdirAll(filepath.Join(setting.RepoRootPath, ownerDir.Name(), repoDir.Name(), "refs", "tag"), 0o755)
+			_ = os.MkdirAll(filepath.Join(setting.RepoRootPath, ownerDir.Name(), repoDir.Name(), "refs", "pull"), 0o755)
 		}
 	}