The Bab Hattah neighborhood in Jerusalem’s Old City is located just outside the gates of the Temple Mount, or al-Haram al-Sharif, the world’s most controversial religious site.
The area is usually one of the city’s most beautiful locations for Ramadan celebrations, and is covered in a series of festive lights and lanterns that are installed over several weeks by about 30 volunteers. There are no decorations this year, and the narrow corridors of the Muslim quarter are quiet. About half of the normally busy souvenir shops and restaurants are closed. On some streets, there are more Israeli border police officers than civilians.
The holy month of fasting and feasting is scheduled to begin on March 10, but for Palestinians it will be difficult for Palestinians as the war in Gaza escalates and tensions in annexed East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank reach a new high. There is little to celebrate.
Zeki al-Basti, 54, a resident of Bab Hatta, said, “It’s difficult to fast and eat when I think about the people of Gaza who are suffering from hunger.” As the war continues… all we can do is pray. ”
Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip have killed more than 30,000 people and left 85% of the population of 2.3 million homeless in the worst violence of the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict so far, according to local health ministry and United Nations data. was chased. The war broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostages, according to Israeli statistics.
Five months later, with a quarter of Gaza facing famine, a comprehensive ceasefire that reaches all parts of the besieged region is more important than ever. The longer the war goes on, the greater the risk of a conflagration. Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen are already embroiled in conflicts.
However, despite frequent claims from all sides that a ceasefire agreement is imminent, both Israel and Hamas appear to be still far from agreeing on terms. There is an unofficial deadline of one week until the start of Ramadan, a period when violence often escalates in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel has said it will carry out a threatened ground attack on Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the Gaza Strip, unless an agreement is reached on the release of Israeli hostages during Ramadan, a move that the international community has criticized. warns that it could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. And it could trigger an escalation of violence across the region.
Every year, during Ramadan, Israel’s control over the Temple Mount and al-Haram al-Sharif is in the spotlight. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshipers attempt to approach the shrine for special prayers held only during the fasting month.
The site is controlled by Jordan, and under a long-standing compromise, Jews are allowed to visit but not to pray there. Any attempt to change the status quo serves as a lightning rod for violence. Clashes between worshipers and border guards during Ramadan 2021 helped spark the final round of fighting in Gaza. Hamas cited police raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque within the complex in 2022 and 2023 as the main reason for the October 7 attack.
Israel ultimately controls access to the Temple Mount, which is often restricted due to security concerns, but since the war began, only Muslim men over the age of 60 have been allowed on the Temple Mount. I was given permission to enter.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir last month recommended that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ban even Israel’s roughly 18% Muslim minority from entering the compound during Ramadan. , caused an uproar.
Although he was later rejected by Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in exile in Qatar, ordered Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank to visit al-Aqsa on the first day of Ramadan. He called for a march.
“Hamas’ biggest goal at the moment is to start a fire on the Temple Mount,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters last week.
He added that the government is increasing security forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank to deal with the threat.
Even before the latest conflict erupted, last year was already the bloodiest in the West Bank since the Second Intifada in the 2000s. Since then, at least 400 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied territories, the first military operation in two decades to target cells belonging to Hamas and other extremist groups. It’s the best.
On Monday, Israeli forces launched the largest raid in years on the Amari refugee camp in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, killing a 16-year-old boy, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
There were also attacks in Jenin and Tulkarem, and the Palestinian Prisoners of War Club said at least 55 people had been arrested in the past 24 hours.
Over the past two years, Israeli operations have become commonplace in the northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus, and recently in the western town of Tulkarem. But attacks on Ramallah, the stronghold of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, are still relatively rare, and Monday’s operation was widely seen as a worrying sign that violence may be escalating. was.
“I’ve never seen it this bad in any other war or intifada or pandemic,” said Ara, 32, who runs a grocery store near the checkpoint used to enter the Western Wall.
“The suffering and hunger that families in Gaza are suffering is intolerable, and we fear it will only get worse.”
