The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamaswhich governs the Gaza Strip, warned Israeli authorities today of an escalation of hostilities during Ramadan in the event of an Israeli “infringement” in Square of the Mosques in Jerusalem.

The warning comes almost ten days before the start of the Islamic holy month, as the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians looks set to enter a new phase, with violence escalating since the end of December and the inauguration of the new Israeli government, the most right-wing that Israel has known since its foundation.

According to excerpts of an “interview” published on the official Hamas website in English, Hamas’s second in command, Salah al-Aruri, states that the risk of escalation during Ramadan “depends solely on Israeli violations throughout Palestine and Al-Aqsa Mosque” in Israeli-occupied and annexed East Jerusalem.

Hamas “has no plans to escalate” during Ramadan, the website says in English. The original Arabic text does not include this statement by al-Aruri, who has been in exile for years.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is located in the Square of Mosques, Islam’s third holiest site, which is built on top of what the Jews call the Temple Mount and is Judaism’s holiest site.

The Square of Mosques is at the center of tension between Israelis and Palestinians, mainly because of restrictions imposed by Israel on Palestinians wishing to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

According to the regime that Israel has imposed on the site after occupying the eastern sector of Jerusalem in 1967, non-Muslims can visit Mosque Square at certain times, but not pray.

In recent years, more and more Jews, often nationalists, have been praying there in secret, which the Palestinians and Jordan – the custodian of Jerusalem’s Muslim holy sites – call “provocative actions” and are systematically condemned by many Arab, Muslim and Western countries. .

If Israel complicates Muslim access to Mosque Square and facilitates Jewish access during Ramadan, “this could provoke action on the part of the Palestinians,” warns Salah al-Aruri.

In early January, Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right figure, made a brief appearance in Mosque Square, prompting international outcry and condemnation from the United States.

At the time, the Israeli government had given assurances that it had no intention of changing the 1967 regime.

In September 2000, the visit to Mosque Square by Ariel Sharon, then the leader of the Israeli opposition, sparked the second Palestinian Intifada (2000-2005).