As Israel’s security establishment prepares for the sensitive Ramadan period, Hamas’ West Bank leader said the group wants a crackdown on terror activities in Gaza to prevent an escalation of violence in the West Bank, reports broadcast by Hebrew media on Sunday In a leaked recording.
Commander Saleh al-Auri, the founder of Hamas’ military wing, said “resistance” in the West Bank “requires restraint” in Gaza “if we are to strategically and [the] Proper management of the campaign,” he said in a recording broadcast by the Cannes public broadcaster in reference to the Ramadan period.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan has historically added an extra layer of tension between Israelis and Palestinians and has often been a period of violence and flare-ups, particularly in Jerusalem’s Old City, with its flashpoint holy sites. In 2021, events in Jerusalem around the Temple Mount and the looming expulsion of Palestinian families from the capital’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood snowballed into an 11-day war between Israel and militant groups in the Gaza Strip. After weeks of tension, Hamas fired rockets into Jerusalem in what became the conflict’s opening salvo.
Al-Ouri said that Hamas has an interest in keeping the ongoing tensions in the West Bank high, while “Gaza must govern itself” and wait for the appropriate time. He said the call to escalate the conflict from within the coastal enclave was well-intentioned but “exaggerated” and that the group needed to act strategically.
“When resistance in the West Bank increases so that the enemy does not remain at peace, it may reach a situation in which Gaza cannot remain silent to the enemy. If resistance in the West Bank increases and reaches a certain level, is reached, violence will likely spread throughout Palestine and beyond,” he said.
“The future of resistance in the West Bank is likely to result in widespread regional violence with the Zionist enemy, and God willing, for the first time, will create an opportunity to strike a great strategic blow,” al-A’Ouri said.
The escalation of violence in the West Bank has led to repeated rocket fire and clashes with militant groups in Gaza. In August, the to arrest In the West Bank city of Jenin, the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Israel and the PIJ fought a 66-hour standoff, including rocket fire, but Hamas stayed out of the fighting.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have run high over the past year, with Israeli forces conducting overnight raids in the West Bank amid a series of deadly Palestinian terrorist attacks. Those tensions have escalated further in recent weeks, which saw a cycle of deadly Israeli raids and Palestinian attacks, as well as an increase in settler violence.
In recent months, 14 Israelis have been killed and many more seriously injured in Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel and the West Bank. In 2022, at least 31 people were killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks.
Since the beginning of the year, at least 85 Palestinians have been killed, most of them in carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, although some were non-involved civilians and others were killed in circumstances that Is being investigated.
Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, shakes hands with his deputy Saleh al-Ahouri upon his arrival in Gaza City from Cairo, Egypt, August 2, 2018. (Mohammed Austaj/Hamas Media Office via AP)
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli and Palestinian Authority delegations met for a relatively rare, albeit low-stakes regional summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where they pledged to de-escalate tensions just days before the start of Ramadan.
The forum was a follow-up to a similar gathering held last month in Aqaba, Jordan – the first such high-level summit of Israeli and Palestinian leaders in years. The sides have also agreed to meet for the third time next month.
The Sharm el-Sheikh summit, like the one in Aqaba, was overshadowed by a terrorist attack that unfolded in the Palestinian city of Huwara. sunday’s Shooting An Israeli-American citizen, a former US Marine, was seriously injured in an Israeli-owned vehicle traveling through the northern West Bank city.
The attack came just three weeks after two Israeli brothers were shot dead in a terrorist attack while passing through Huwara. In the wake of that attack, settlers rioted in the town, setting houses and cars on fire. A Palestinian was shot dead under unclear circumstances.
