Ramadan begins; Israel warns Hamas
Efforts to send more aid to Palestinians progress
The holy month of Ramadan prompted fasting and worship by Muslims around the world Monday, but it brought no end to the death and destruction wrought by the war in the Gaza Strip despite intense effort by the U.S. and other nations to broker a ceasefire.
Palestinians prayed amid rubble and fear after talks stalled over Israel’s resolve to crush Hamas and the militant group’s demands for a pathway to permanent peace and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza.
Israel has vowed to expand its offensive to the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians have has sought refuge since the war began Oct. 7 with a deadly Hamas-led rampage into Israel. Hamas has called for stepped-up resistance, drawing a warning from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“I say to everyone who is thinking of trying us this month − we are ready. Don’t make mistakes,” he said.
President Joe Biden issued a statement acknowledging that the sacred month has arrived “at a moment of immense pain” in the enclave as the death toll surpasses 31,000 while almost 2 million remain displaced. He said the U.S. will continue leading the effort to increase humanitarian aid while “working nonstop” to broker a peace agreement.
“As Muslims gather around the world over the coming days and weeks to break their fast, the suffering of the Palestinian people will be front of mind for many,” Biden said. “It is front of mind for me.”
Mahjoob Zweiri, a professor at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera the U.S. pressured Israel not to tighten access restrictions at East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest, in the West Bank. “If the Israelis do not listen to the Americans, West Bank is likely to become another Gaza in a matter of months,” Zweiri warned.
Israel announced last week it would not reduce the number of worshippers allowed to pray at the site for at least a week while monitoring security. The mosque is part of Temple Mount, the holiest place in Judaism, where two biblical Temples once stood.
Jordan Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned Monday that any restrictions imposed by Israel on Muslim worshippers’ access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during Ramadan could result in an “explosion.” Video posted on social media Sunday night appeared to show Israeli Border Police clashing with worshippers and police saying they were working to “enable freedom of worship (while) ensuring safety and security.”
Netanyahu defends planned military assault on Rafah
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday defended his plan to expand Israel’s military offensive into Rafah over the objection of Biden and other world leaders, saying he doesn’t want to leave “a quarter of the Hamas terror army in place.”
Netanyahu, speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends,” said Biden agrees Hamas must be destroyed. Unless Hamas is defeated completely, the militant group will regroup, regain control of Gaza and repeat the Oct. 7 rampage that killed almost 1,200 people and saw about 250 hostages seized, Netanyahu said.
Biden wants to ensure the safe departure of more than 1 million Palestinians who have sought refuge in Rafah “before we go in; we agree with that,” Netanyahu said.
“Look, it’s either Israel or Hamas. There is no middle way,” Netanyahu said. “We can’t leave a quarter of the Hamas terror army in place. They’re there in Rafah. This would be equivalent to saying, you know, after the allies fought back, gone through Normandy, went through Germany, and you’d say, well, we’ll leave a quarter of the Nazi army in place, and we won’t go into Berlin, the last stronghold.”
The U.S. and other countries have begun airdropping aid in recent days, but humanitarian groups say such efforts are costly and insufficient.
The U.S. military has also begun transporting equipment to build a sea bridge to deliver aid, but it will likely be several weeks before it is operational.
A ship belonging to Spanish aid group Open Arms carrying 200 tons of food aid was expected to make a pilot voyage to Gaza from nearby Cyprus, though it was not clear when it would depart. Israel says it welcomes the sea deliveries and will inspect Gaza-bound cargo before it leaves Cyprus.
No damage reported from latest attack on Red Sea shipping
An explosion took place near a ship in the Red Sea on Monday, but the ship’s master said no one was hurt, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
The attack likely came from the Yemen-based Houthi rebels who have been targeting ships, claiming support for Palestinians in Gaza. The private security firm Ambrey say the incident may have involved a missile, but few details were available, and the Houthis issued no immediate statement.
Progressive groups form coalition to counter pro-Israel groups
Facing a barrage of super PAC money, more than 20 progressive groups are coming together to forcefully counter efforts by pro-Israel political action committees like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to mount primary election challenges to liberal members of Congress who’ve been critics of Israel’s blistering military offensive in Gaza.
The coalition, called Reject AIPAC, includes Jewish peace organizations and Arab American and Muslim groups that have been organizing in record numbers since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.
Usamah Andrabi, communications director for Justice Democrats, one of the groups leading the coalition, said the strategy is to link up the grassroots organizations behind a seven-figure “electoral defense campaign” that aims not only to protect members of Congress being targeted by AIPAC but also to bring light to what they see as the group’s divergence from the longstanding values of the Democratic Party.