International hopes for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan have been dashed. A few hours before the start of the holy month for Muslims, the Qatar-based head of the Islamist Hamas, Ismail Haniya, reiterated on Sunday the call for a permanent ceasefire. The hostages would not be released unless Israel ended the war and withdrew its troops.
Israel, on the other hand, blamed Hamas for the fact that negotiations between mediators Qatar, Egypt and the USA have not yet resulted in an agreement. “Their strategy is to increase international pressure on Israel and to persuade the international community to prevent Israel from bringing about the final defeat of Hamas forces,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview carried by “Bild”, “Welt TV” and “Politico” interview (Sunday) at his official residence in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, aid is being transported by sea for the suffering population in Gaza. The ship “Open Arms” from the Spanish aid organization of the same name, loaded with relief supplies, was scheduled to set sail from the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Monday morning at the earliest, the Cypriot Radio (RIK) reported on Sunday evening. Larnaca is around 400 kilometers from the Gaza Strip. It was initially unclear where exactly the ship would land and how the help would get to the people.
The sea corridor is absolutely necessary “because we are currently experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe,” said EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday in the ZDF “heute journal”. The procedure had been agreed with Israel, but she also expected more help from there. The country is only fulfilling its duty to care for people “to a limited extent” and must do more to protect civilian life, she said.
Meanwhile, increased tensions are expected in the West Bank and around the holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem during Ramadan. According to Israel’s foreign intelligence agency Mossad, Hamas is seeking to “set the region on fire” during the month of fasting. In the West Bank, Israel has strengthened its security forces stationed there after numerous warnings about an increase in violence, the broadcaster i24news reported on Sunday evening. On the eve of Ramadan, no fewer than 23 battalions of the Israeli military were stationed there.
Thousands of police officers are also deployed in the narrow streets of Jerusalem’s Old City, the Times of Israel reported. The Israeli government has allowed Muslims to pray on the Temple Mount – also known as Haram al-Sharif – during Ramadan. However, the security situation should be reassessed weekly. The place is sacred to both Jews and Muslims. According to the Times of Israel, a video circulated on social media on Sunday evening showing a scuffle between Israeli police officers with batons and believers at the entrance to the site.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was determined to begin the planned military offensive against Hamas in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip soon, despite international warnings. “We are very close to a victory,” said the right-wing politician in the interview conducted by “Bild”, Welt TV and “Politico”. Once the offensive begins, it will be a matter of four to six weeks until the intensive phase of fighting is completed. “We have destroyed three quarters of the Hamas battalions,” Netanyahu said. Giving up now would be absurd. Hamas would “reposition itself and start again.” The war was triggered by a massacre in which terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups murdered around 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 in Israel on October 7th.
Netanyahu rejected accusations from US President Joe Biden, who had criticized Israel’s harsh military crackdown. “If the US president means that I am pursuing a private policy against the wishes of the majority of Israelis and that it harms Israel’s interests, then he is wrong on both counts,” he said in the interview. His policies are supported by an “overwhelming majority” of Israelis. “They support the measures we are taking to destroy the remaining Hamas battalions.”
The USA criticizes the planned offensive in Rafah because 1.5 million people there are seeking protection from the fighting in other parts of Gaza in a very small space. First they have to be brought to safety, said Biden. For him, this represents a “red line”.
Launching a ground offensive in Rafah during Ramadan would be risky, Udi Dekel, a retired Israeli brigadier general and researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told the Wall Street Journal. Israel has so far postponed major operations in Rafah to gain time for negotiations on a temporary ceasefire and the release of hostages. If the talks do not produce any results, there will no longer be any reason for Israel to hold back, said Dekel.
For weeks, Israel and Hamas have been fighting for a temporary ceasefire in indirect negotiations. The Hamas leadership is counting on Ramadan to turn the dynamics of the war in their favor, the Wall Street Journal wrote on Sunday. She hopes that diplomatic pressure will lead to the cessation of the offensive and thus ensure the survival of Hamas.
Hamas leader Haniya said on Sunday that if mediators announced that Israel was committed to ending the war and withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, they would be willing to be flexible in the talks. The mediators’ proposal so far only called for a six-week ceasefire and a first phase of exchanging hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Hamas does not want to “give up the only card it has, namely the hostages, in return for a temporary ceasefire,” Ghassan Khatib from Birzeit University told the Wall Street Journal.
The number of Palestinians killed in the war rose to more than 31,000 on Sunday, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health authority. The information makes no distinction between civilians and armed fighters. The vast majority of victims were women, minors and older men, the Hamas authorities emphasized. Netanyahu contradicted this account in the interview. The number of civilians killed in Gaza is far lower, he said. His country’s army killed “at least 13,000 terrorists.”
