Gaza-based Islamic terrorist group Hamas seeks to escalate violence during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan that begins on March 22, senior Israeli journalist and Middle East expert, Yoni Ben-Menachem, writes citing recent Palestinian propaganda and Israeli assessment.
According to Ben-Menachem, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) will use their West Bank strongholds of Nablus and Jenin to draw the Israeli military into a “war of attrition” and use the clashes during the month of Ramadan to galvanize Palestinians to trigger a “Third Intifada,” a reference to the two previous waves of Palestinian violence and terror that took place between 1987–1993 and 1999–2004.
The Muslim month of Ramadan was is often marked by a surge in Palestinian rioting and terrorist attacks against Jews and Israelis. Ramadan prayers at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount are used to incite violence and terror against Jews. Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli soil are followed by relentless rocket fire aimed at Israel towns and cities from Gaza-based Hamas, PIJ other terrorist groups.
“Hamas’s Ramadan plan,” by Yoni Ben-Menachem, Israel National News, February 27, 2023:
The terrorist organizations plan to step up attacks toward the month of Ramadan (March 22-April 20, 2023) as a catalyst for a third intifada. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh published a statement on Feb. 23 in which he said that the Palestinian Arabs will not allow anyone to suppress the intifada that was developing in the ‘West Bank’, and added that “the campaign against the enemy is entering a stage of strong desperation [of Israel] and breaking the occupiers and expelling them from the land of our fathers and grandfathers.”
Hamas aims to bring about a major escalation during Ramadan. Developments on the ground are working in its favor. The P.A.’s power is in continuous decline (the Jordan summit is an attempt to resurrect it), while in Israel, the new government is in a state of diplomatic confrontation with the international community, and in a domestic political crisis. (…)
Hamas has been planning for a long time to ignite a new intifada in eastern Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria using two main elements that can arouse the Palestinian Arab street: the security prisoners in Israeli prisons, and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The security prisoners have already announced their intent to initiate a hunger strike at the beginning of Ramadan.
The action plan of Hamas and PIJ for Ramadan is as follows:
- Proclamation of civil disobedience in the Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem.
- Launch a war of attrition against IDF forces and Israeli civilians out of Nablus and Jenin.
- Launch rockets from Gaza to support the new intifada.
The analysis coincides with a surge in Palestinian violence and terror attacks. On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bolstered its troops in the West Bank after a terrorist gunned down of two Israeli brothers, aged 19 and 21, who were passing by the Palestinian town of Huwara.
The same day, a Palestinian mob reportedly set fire to the tomb of the biblical prophet Jacob situated near the West Bank town of Nablus. “The Palestinians report late Sunday that Joseph’s Tomb was set on fire, and Israel is looking into the reports,” the Israeli news website Ynet reported. In April 2022, Palestinian rioters had vandalized and set fire to the scared tomb as well.
Walter Sieruk says
When it comes to that brutal cruel deadly jihad entity ,Hamas. Of its jihadist members the message is well worth reiterating.
The message is that the jihadists of Hamas are so very dangerous and murderous that they reflect the Bible’s teaching. Which reads “The hearts of men are full of evil and madness and after they dies they go to the place the dead.” Ecclesiastes 9:3.
Likewise, in the New Testament Romans 3:15-17 rather well describes the character and behavior of the hostile malicious jihadist savages of Hamas. As they are similar to villains in ancient times.
For it reads “Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known.”
Nope says
You know that fighting is not permissible for Muslims during Ramadan right
marc says
BS. Islamic law forbids warfare in four months of the year, but Ramadan is not one of them.
Some Muslims believe there is no better time to fight for a just cause than in Ramadan, and some warriors believe it is a blessing to die as a “martyr” then.
Religious scholars and political analysts say battles during Ramadan have been common throughout the ages. They point to the first major victory of Islam at Badr in 624 AD and the conquest of Mecca, both conducted during the holy month.
Egypt and Syria launched the 1973 war against Israel in Ramadan, and Iran and Iraq did not stop fighting during Ramadan in their 1980-88 war.