Henriette Charcar, Ali Sawafta, and Nidal Al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM (Reuters – A year after the events of Jerusalem, violence during Ramadan in Muslim holy months are raising alarms about a renewed Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Leaders from both sides have warned of an escalation.

Israeli riot officers entered Al-Aqsa mosque compound to disperse Palestinians throwing firecrackers and stones towards them on Friday.

Al-Aqsa sits on the plateau of East Jerusalem that Israel captured during 1967 Middle East war. It was later annexed by Israel. The Temple Mount is the sensitive area of the decades-old conflict.

Khalil Shikaki (director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research) stated that Jerusalem is “perhaps the most important issue that could trigger widescale violence.” “We’ve seen it before.”

The holy city is already feeling the strain from the recent attacks by Palestinian terrorists on Israelis and the Israeli army’s killings of Palestinians living in West Bank.

Mohammad Shtayyeh the Palestinian Prime Minister, called the Israeli riot police’s actions at Al-Aqsa a “brutal attack on worshippers during holy month” as well as a bad sign.

Unidentified Hamas spokesperson said at an event in Gaza that the use of force by Israel would be considered.

Fawzi Barhoum stated that “We will draw again the line in defense of Jerusalem” and would launch a new age; weapons will be replaced by weapons and force can only be defeated by force. He also said,

After Hamas asked for the Israeli police to withdraw from Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, and Jerusalem, last May Palestinian militants launched rockets at Israel. Protests and confrontation followed a threat by a Palestinian court to expel Palestinian residents.

During the subsequent 11-day conflict, 25 Palestinians were killed in Gaza while 13 Israelis died.

Israel’s Prime Minster Naftali Bennett said the authorities worked to restore peace in Jerusalem, and all over Israel. But they are ready for anything.

Bennett released a statement saying that they are prepared for all scenarios and that security forces have the capability to handle any challenge.

WATER OF KILLINGS

Three Israelis were killed and several others injured by a Palestinian refugee from Jenin, West Bank. This was just the 14th Palestinian attack on Israeli cities.

Bennett called the terrorist attacks on the victims, which are the deadliest since 2016, “a wave of terror.”

In this year’s Israeli military massacre of 40 Palestinians, Dahlia Scheindlin – an Israeli analyst on public opinion – said the cycle can be traced back as far as February 1, when Israeli forces killed three Palestinian terrorists in Hebron.

According to the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, this killing was “an ugly field execution”.

Israel considers security measures to include repairing breaches in the West Bank barrier and making mass arrests. It has also moderated Palestinian movements from Gaza and West Bank into Israel and Jerusalem.

Yairlapid, Israel’s Foreign Minister, said Thursday that “there are no restrictions to the use of force.” He was speaking in agreement with Bennett. He said that Israel will allow Palestinians to celebrate Ramadan in peace if they “maintain quiet”.

These relief measures appeared to have eased some Palestinian frustrations up until Friday’s Al-Aqsa clashes, Shikaki stated.

However, the pent-up anger and grievances over Israel’s 55-year military occupation of territories it captured in the 1967 war, and where Palestinians seek to establish a state, outweigh the current concessions, he added.

In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, 2021 marked the highest rate of Palestinian home demolitions since 2016, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

Itay Epshtain, an expert in humanitarian law, claims that Israel has issued only 33 permits for Palestinians over the past five years and nearly 16,500 permits for Jewish settlers in 60% of West Bank territory it directs. The data was disclosed by Israel’s Defence Ministry.

Diana Buttu, who was a legal advisor for the Palestine Liberation Organization, stated that the entire structure of occupation is “violent”. There have been many decades of it, decades of daily violence and eventually, it all boomerangs onto Israel.