Monitoring Desk
RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Tuesday warned Israel it would react to any possible “violations” at a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, issued the warning less than two weeks before the start of Ramadan and amid an escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Salah al-Aruri, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, said the risk of escalation entirely “depends on the Israeli occupation’s violations across Palestine and at Al-Aqsa mosque” located in annexed east Jerusalem.
Al-Aqsa, a Jordan-administered mosque compound, is the third holiest site in Islam. It is built on top of what Jews call the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site.
Hamas warns of reaction to Israel’s actions
Any Israeli attempt to “impose” its policies during Ramadan would be met with the “reaction of our people,” Aruri said in remarks from his movement’s official website.
Hamas, meanwhile, has no plans to initiate an escalation during Ramadan, according to the English-language version of Aruri’s remarks. However, such clarification does not appear in the Arabic version.
Under a longstanding status quo, non-Muslims can visit the site at specific times but are not allowed to pray there.
In recent years, a large number of Jews, most Israeli nationalists, have covertly prayed at the compound, a development decried by Palestinians.
Israel’s extreme-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, sparked global condemnation in January when he visited the site.
A controversial visit in 2000 by then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon was one of the primary triggers for the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which lasted until 2005.
Since the start of the year, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has claimed the lives of around 81 Palestinian adults and children.
Thirteen Israelis and one Ukrainian have been killed over the same period.
