The meditated talks between Israel and Hamas have faltered after weeks of expectations and efforts to agree on a permanent ceasefire and the release of hostages and prisoners.
The month of Ramadan is due to start on, March 11, and Israel is set to restrict access of Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank to the Al-Aqsa Mosque while it is bombing the Gaza Strip, starving Palestinians, and shunning calls to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza?
Ramadan is a month of fasting, prayer, and contemplation for millions of Muslims.
But it has an extra layer of holiness for Palestinians in the West Bank, who are barred from entering Jerusalem all year round without an Israeli permit. Ramadan, hence, is an opportunity to reconnect with their capital city and pray in the Al-Aqsa.
Israel’s plan to restrict access to Jerusalem marks an escalation and will likely lead to violence. Knowing this, the Israeli government has already deployed 15,000 soldiers and military police in the West Bank and Jerusalem since Friday.
Those include 5,000 reservists, 24 battalions, 20 Border Police companies, and two special forces units. The 2.5 million Palestinians in Gaza are barred entry by Israel to visit Jerusalem without a permit.
For millions in the Gaza Strip, they will spend Ramadan in tents, shelters, or amid the shattered walls and rubble of what is left of their bombed houses and completely destroyed neighborhoods.
Some of them, who were displaced from north Gaza since October, are now blocked from going back to their houses by Israeli forces stationed on Salah El-Din Street, which splits Gaza into north and south.
Hamas has been adamant that it will only agree to a permanent truce, which would end Israel’s bombing of Gaza and permit the return of thousands of families to north Gaza.
During a speech on Friday evening, Abu Obaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’s Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, ruled out any breakthrough in the talks of a ceasefire.
He warned that the campaign of starvation Israel is launching against the people of Gaza is affecting Israeli captives, some of whom suffer from hunger and deprivation, lack of food and medicine, and suffer malnutrition, dehydration, and emaciation.
Spain has been supportive of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October, and unlike other European countries who suspended funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Madrid pledged to pay $22m extra to help UNRWA’s aid operations in Gaza.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have arrested 7,505 Palestinians since October, 2023. Overnight, 15 Palestinians were detained from Nablus, Tubas, Ramallah, and Hebron.
Mondoweiss / ABC Flash Point News 2024.
Steadfast confiscation of Palestine property!
As always perfect timing by the Zionist swamp, talking about respect for religion?