Sudan army general rules out Ramadan truce unless RSF leaves civilian sites
Sudan general rejects truce after UNSC calls for cessation of hostilities during the Islamic holy month. Senior Sudanese Armed Forces General Yasser al-Atta has said there will be no truce in Sudan during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan unless the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group leaves the homes and sites of civilians. The statement follows an appeal by the United Nations Security Council for a truce during Ramadan, which begins this week. The RSF said it welcomed the truce call. Al-Atta’s statement, issued on the army’s official Telegram channel on Sunday, cited recent military advances by the army in Omdurman, part of Sudan’s wider capital. It said there could be no Ramadan truce unless the RSF complied with a commitment made in May last year at Saudi and US-mediated talks in Jeddah to withdraw from civilian homes and public facilities. It also said Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the RSF leader commonly known as Hemedti, should not play a role in Sudan’s future politics or military. The statement follows the UNSC’s appeal for a respite from the 11-month-old conflict during Ramadan, which is expected to begin on Monday or Tuesday, depending on the sighting of the crescent moon. Fourteen countries on the 15-member council on Friday backed the resolution proposed by the United Kingdom, with only Russia abstaining from the vote. The resolution called on “all parties to the conflict to seek a sustainable resolution to the conflict through dialogue”. Fighting between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF erupted in mid-April 2023. Tens of thousands of people have since been killed, 8.3 million have been forcibly displaced, and the UN says nearly 25 million people – half of Sudan’s population – are in need of aid. The army has been on the back foot militarily for much of the conflict. In the first days of fighting, the RSF occupied large parts of the capital, Khartoum. Guterres backs Ramadan truce UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the warring sides for a truce following the adoption of the UK-drafted resolution by the UNSC on Friday. However, the mechanism for implementing the resolution remains unclear. Sudan’s UN ambassador, Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed, told the council on Thursday that the president of the country’s transitional council commended Guterres’s truce appeal. However, he said the leader is “wondering about how to do this”. Welcoming the truce call, the RSF said in a statement on Saturday, “In embracing the proposed humanitarian ceasefire, we express our readiness to partake in discussions concerning the establishment of mutually agreed upon monitoring mechanisms.” “These mechanisms are crucial for ensuring the effective implementation of the ceasefire and for achieving the humanitarian objectives intended by this resolution.” Adblock test (Why?)
US military airlifts some embassy personnel from Haiti, bolsters security
The US operation comes amid gang violence that threatens to bring down the government and has led thousands to flee their homes. The US military says it has carried out an operation in Haiti to airlift non-essential embassy personnel from the Caribbean country amid a state of emergency. It also brought in additional personnel to boost security at the compound in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. “This airlift of personnel into and out of the embassy is consistent with our standard practice for embassy security augmentation worldwide, and no Haitians were on board the military aircraft,” the US military’s Southern Command said in a statement on Sunday. The US embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti [File: Matias Delacroix/AP Photo] Haiti is spiralling deeper into gang violence, which threatens to bring down the government and has led thousands to flee their homes. The escalation began a week ago after Haiti’s embattled Prime Minister Ariel Henry agreed to hold general elections in mid-2025 while attending a meeting of Caribbean leaders in Guyana. Henry has faced a crisis of legitimacy since he took up his post less than two weeks after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. In the past week, Henry flew from Guyana to Kenya – and gangs in Haiti set fire to police stations, attacked the main international airport, which remains closed, and raided the country’s two largest prisons, where they freed more than 4,000 inmates. During that time, Henry was in Nairobi, seeking a deal for the long-delayed United Nations-backed mission to help tackle gang violence. Kenya announced last year that it would lead the force, but months of domestic legal wrangling have effectively put the mission on hold. Henry is currently in Puerto Rico, where he was forced to land after armed groups laid siege to the airport and the neighbouring Dominican Republic barred him from entering after officials there closed the country’s airspace to flights to and from Haiti. Earlier in the week, the head of the powerful G9 Haitian gang alliance, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, warned, “If Ariel Henry doesn’t resign, if the international community continues to support him, we’ll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide.” Jimmy Chérizier holds a press conference in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, March 5, 2024 [Odelyn Joseph/AP Photo] On Saturday, the US State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto about the Haiti crisis. The two men underscored their commitment to a multinational security mission to restore order. The US Southern Command’s statement said Washington remained committed to those goals. “Our embassy remains focused on advancing US government efforts to support the Haitian people, including mobilizing support for the Haitian National Police, expediting the deployment of the United Nations-authorized Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission and accelerating a peaceful transition of power via free and fair elections,” it said. Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine rejects pope’s call to ‘raise the white flag’ to end Russia’s war
The Catholic leader, 87, told a Swiss broadcaster that Ukraine should negotiate with Russia and raised the idea of surrender. Ukraine has rejected Pope Francis’s call to hold negotiations with Russia more than two years into its invasion, saying that Kyiv will “never” surrender. “Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media Sunday, a day after the pope said Kyiv should “have the courage to raise the white flag”. The 87-year-old Catholic leader said in an interview with Swiss broadcaster RTS that Ukraine should negotiate with Russia, which has seized large swathes of Ukrainian territory since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. In part of the interview released on Saturday, the Catholic leader raised the prospect of surrender. “I believe that the strongest are those who see the situation, think about the people, and have the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate,” Pope Francis said in an interview that the Vatican said was conducted in early February. Kuleba called on the pope to stand “on the side of good” and not put the opposing sides “on the same footing and call it ‘negotiations’”. The strongest is the one who, in the battle between good and evil, stands on the side of good rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it “negotiations”. At the same time, when it comes to the white flag, we know this Vatican’s strategy from the first half… — Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 10, 2024 Kuleba also appeared to reference some Catholic church collaboration with Nazi forces during World War II when he said the following: “At the same time, when it comes to the white flag, we know this Vatican strategy from the first half of the 20th century.” “I urge to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and to support Ukraine and its people in their just struggle for their lives,” Kuleba added. He also thanked Pope Francis for his “constant prayers for peace” and said Kyiv hoped he would visit Ukraine. “We continue to hope that after two years of devastating war in the heart of Europe, the Pontiff will find an opportunity to pay an Apostolic visit to Ukraine to support over a million Ukrainian Catholics, over five million Greek-Catholics and all Ukrainians,” Kuleba said. The foreign minister of Poland, a vocal ally of Kyiv, also condemned the pope’s remarks. “How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine? Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in a post on X. How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine?Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations. https://t.co/gWNYSUt79u — Radosław Sikorski 🇵🇱🇪🇺 (@sikorskiradek) March 10, 2024 In a separate post, Sikorski made parallels between those calling for negotiations while “denying [Ukraine] the means to defend itself” and European leaders’ “appeasement” of Adolf Hitler before World War II. Andrii Yurash, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, compared the pope’s comments to calls for “talking with Hitler” while raising “a white flag to satisfy him”. Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, also said Sunday that surrender is not on the minds of Ukrainians. “Ukraine is wounded, but unconquered! Ukraine is exhausted, but it stands and will endure. Believe me, it never crosses anyone’s mind to surrender. Even where there is fighting today: listen to our people in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy,” he said. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni later clarified that the pope supported “a stop to hostilities [and] a truce achieved with the courage of negotiations”, rather than an outright Ukrainian surrender. While Pope Francis has tried to maintain the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic neutrality, he has also expressed some sympathy with the Russian rationale for invading Ukraine, such as when he noted that NATO was “barking at Russia’s door” with its eastward expansion. Ukraine has remained steadfast on not engaging directly with Russia on peace talks, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying multiple times that peace negotiations must come from the country that has been invaded. Adblock test (Why?)
Hezbollah fires rockets into Israel after deadly strikes
Armed group says it launched dozens of rockets on Israeli village of Meron, after Israeli strikes killed five people in southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s Hezbollah has said it has fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel after Israeli strikes the day before killed at least five people in southern Lebanon, including three of the group’s members, as fears grow of a regional escalation. Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian group Hamas, and Israel have been exchanging near daily fire across the border since Israel launched a brutal war on Gaza on October 7 in the wake of a deadly attack inside Israel. Hezbollah said on Sunday it had launched “dozens of katyusha-type rockets” in the morning on the Israeli village of Meron, 8km (5 miles) from the border. Meron is home to a major air control base that the Iran-backed group has targeted several times since the start of the year. Hezbollah said it had acted “in response to Israeli attacks against villages in the south and the homes of civilians”, particularly the targeting of the home of a fighter in Khirbet Selm the day before. A woman and another person were also killed in the same strike, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency. “Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel, approximately 35 launches from Lebanon towards Israeli territory were identified, a number of which were intercepted,” the Israeli army said on Sunday. The statement added that the Israeli air force struck Hezbollah infrastructure during the night, including a “military structure in which Hezbollah terrorists were identified in the area of Khirbet Selm”. At least 312 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of cross-border violence on October 8, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 53 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed, according to the latest official figures. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting on both sides of the border. Strikes have largely remained confined to border regions for the moment, but several have hit Hezbollah positions further north in recent weeks, raising fears of a full-blown conflict. The group has repeatedly said that it will only stop its attacks on Israel with a ceasefire in Gaza, where people have died from malnutrition and dehydration. More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed in the more than five months of Israeli offensive. But Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said recently that any truce in Gaza would not change Israel’s goal of pushing Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon, by force or diplomacy. Adblock test (Why?)
India signs $100bn free trade deal with European EFTA bloc
India to lift import tariffs for several industrial products from four-nation group in return for 15-year investment. India has signed a $100bn free trade agreement with a four-member European bloc and will lift most import tariffs on industrial products from these countries in return for the investment over 15 years. The deal signed on Sunday with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) – after several rounds of negotiations spanning 16 years – will see investments across a range of Indian sectors, including pharmaceuticals, machinery and manufacturing. The EFTA comprises Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, all non-European Union nations, that will get access to a fast-growing market of 1.4 billion people, said India’s Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal. “The India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement [TEPA] marks a historic milestone in our growing partnership,” Goyal said after the signing in New Delhi. It “will pave the path for mutual growth and prosperity” by boosting exports, promoting investment and creating employment, he added. In the last two years, India has signed trade agreements with Australia and the United Arab Emirates, and officials say a deal with the United Kingdom is in the final stages as Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to hit $1 trillion in annual exports by 2030. India will lift, or partially remove, very high customs duties on 95.3 percent of industrial imports from Switzerland, excluding gold, either immediately or over time, the Swiss government said in a statement. “Norwegian companies exporting to India today meet high import taxes of up to 40% on certain goods,” Industry Minister Jan Christian Vestre said in a separate statement. “With the new deal, we have secured nil import taxes on nearly every Norwegian good.” Under the agreement, Indian agricultural exporters will enjoy liberalised trade rules in the form of tariff concessions in the European bloc. Professionals will also be able to take up jobs in the EFTA zone, officials said. The pact covers some new elements such as intellectual rights and gender equity, Goyal said, telling a news conference, “It is a modern trade agreement, fair, equitable and win-win for all five countries.” The five must ratify the deal before it can take effect, with Switzerland planning to do so by 2025. The signing comes ahead of India’s general elections, due by May, in which Modi will seek a third term. India is EFTA’s fifth-largest trading partner after the EU, the United States, the UK and China, with total two-way trade of $25bn in 2023, its Ministry of Trade estimates. Formed in 1960 as a counterweight to the EU, the EFTA has signed about 30 trade agreements with some 40 countries and territories outside the EU. Adblock test (Why?)
Will Israel be allowed to continue its Gaza starvation strategy?
US Senator Chris Van Hollen: It’s time for the United States to tell Israel, ‘If you continue to ignore us, there will be consequences.’ US Senator Chris Van Hollen says it is time for the Biden administration to tell Israel, “If you continue to ignore us, there will be consequences.” Senator Van Hollen, who is one of seven senators (out of 100) to have called for a permanent ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, tells host Steve Clemons that Hamas’s surprise attack last year “does not justify the humanitarian catastrophe that we’re witnessing in Gaza”. The Democratic senator from Maryland said that the United States has to use “all the levers of our power and influence” to allow more aid to get to starving Palestinians. Adblock test (Why?)
Syria avoids regional cold shoulder despite Captagon drug trade
In Iraq’s western Anbar province, authorities made a new drug bust at the end of February, seizing 80kg (176lb) of the narcotic Captagon. It is just the latest seizure of the Middle East’s budget amphetamine of choice in Iraq, and in a region that lies just across the border from Syria, where the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has increasingly come to rely on the manufacture and export of the drug as an illicit source of funding in an economy devastated by war. Rising to international prominence in the 2010s after it reportedly became the drug of choice for ISIL (ISIS) fighters, Captagon was originally developed in the 1960s and often called the “poor man’s cocaine”. By the 2000s, production had largely moved to the Middle East, where the drug’s quality varies almost as much as its customer base. In some of the more affluent regions of the region, Captagon is used by young people to add an illicit thrill to a weekend’s evening. But for a taxi driver facing the prospect of another double shift, Captagon can mark the difference between making a rent payment or not. The Syrian government has taken advantage of this market, according to experts and Western governments. Captagon has proven ideal for Damascus which, facing international isolation and the destruction of traditional tax-raising means, has turned to the drug trade. The highly addictive narcotic can be manufactured quickly and has become a source of profit for individuals associated with the regime, with the business and economics website Syria Report noting that both the shrinking space for legitimate business as well as the expansion of the narcotics trade has effectively combined to make drug manufacturing the most important source of foreign currency in the country. While Syria denies involvement in the Captagon trade, the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom imposed sanctions last year on Syrian individuals, including two cousins of al-Assad, as well as others with close ties to the government and the military, in an attempt to target what the US estimated to have become “a billion-dollar illicit enterprise”. In its statement, the Council of the European Union was also explicit, stating that the trade in Captagon had become a “regime-led business model, enriching the inner circle of the regime and providing it with revenue that contributes to its ability to maintain its policies of repression against the civilian population”. The war “has hit the regime tremendously, not simply directly as a result of the fighting and destruction, but also via sanctions and restrictions on dealing with the regime internationally”, said HA Hellyer, a Middle East security expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Royal United Services Institute. “The Iranians and Russians have tried to ameliorate, but with limited success, and that’s impacted the regime generally as well as [al-]Assad’s clan in particular.” The Syrian connection Syria is a central node in the regional Captagon trade, with Caroline Rose, a director of the New Lines Institute’s Captagon Trade Project, explaining how pills are trafficked by units of the military’s Fourth Armoured Division from locations such as Deraa and Sweida in the south of the country overland to Iraq, or trafficked by the government’s allies, Hezbollah, into Lebanon. While Hezbollah has denied involvement in the Captagon trade, there is growing evidence that the drug’s reach is expanding. In December, Jordanian forces exchanged fire with Syrian Captagon smugglers attempting to take advantage of heavy fog to rush the border, the second time in a single week. “Globally, the Captagon trade is worth around $10bn. Of that, roughly $2.4bn went directly to the Syrian regime last year,” Rose said. “Little or nothing went to restructuring or the needs of the Syrian people.” “We know that Assad is close to [Libyan renegade general] Khalifa Haftar, so there’s a lot of chat about the al-Assad regime using eastern Libya as a base. We’re also seeing a growing number of Captagon captures in countries across the coup belt,” Rose said, referring to the string of countries spanning Africa from Guinea to Sudan. Alternatively, the narcotic finds its way from Syria to Europe, before being repackaged and directed to the Gulf, where customs officials are assumed to be less wary of shipments carrying EU or UK paperwork. “We haven’t seen any fresh seizures in Europe for a few months now,” Andrew Cunningham, of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, said. “However, we know that transiting pills through Europe is still an important part of their network.” “Captagon has generally failed to establish a market for itself within Europe,” he said of the drug, which has failed to compete against more accessible harder drugs in Europe and the omnipresent reach of alcohol. “However, that’s not to say there aren’t manufacturing labs there. There have been a number of raids in the Netherlands, for example, but their output appears to have been destined for the Arabian Peninsula.” Regional countries announced seizures of tens of millions of Captagon pills in recent months [File: Saudi Press Agency via AP] Regional reintegration However, despite international disquiet at Syria’s trade in narcotics, analysts suspect that regional actors may be placing concern over Captagon as secondary to enhancing regional unity, a trend exacerbated by the war in Gaza. Last May, Syria was readmitted to the Arab League, going some way to rehabilitating the al-Assad regime, which had previously been shunned by most of the region for its years-long war against the country’s opposition, and the hundreds of thousands killed as a result. “Israel’s war on Gaza and the resulting escalation within the region will have only impressed upon those regional powers the need not to escalate matters with the [al-]Assad regime,” Hellyer said. While the shock waves from Israel’s war on Gaza reverberate around the world, often drawing stark dividing lines between ruler and ruled, in Syria, it may be offering the regime further respite from international censure. Adblock test (Why?)
Nigeria school abductions: More pupils snatched as army hunts for missing
Locals tell Al Jazeera they feel abandoned by the government and will have no peace of mind until the children return. Armed men have kidnapped 15 pupils from a boarding school in northwestern Nigeria days after more than 280 students were abducted from another school with the army still searching for them. The men broke into the Islamic seminary in the village of Gidan Bakuso in Sokoto state on Saturday and seized 15 children from the hostel as they slept, police told The Associated Press news agency. Liman Abubakar, the head of the seminary, said the pupils were aged between eight and 14. Sokoto police spokesman Ahmad Rufai told the AP that one woman was also abducted from the remote village, adding that a police tactical squad was deployed to search for the students. It was the third incident of mass kidnapping in northern Nigeria since late last week, when more than 200 people, mostly women and children, were abducted by suspected fighters in Borno state. On Thursday, 287 students were taken hostage from a government primary and secondary school in Kaduna state. Abandoned by government Saturday’s kidnappings come as the Nigerian government launched a search and rescue mission for 287 missing children who were taken from Kuriga, in northwestern Kaduna state on Thursday in the largest mass abduction in three years. Kuriga residents told Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris that the children were seized by more than 100 attackers shortly after their daily assembly as they spoke of feeling abandoned by the government. “They shot indiscriminately, herding us like cows and beating us,” Mustafa Abubakar, a student who managed to escape, told Al Jazeera in Kuriga. Abubakar recalled military jets flying over them twice before he escaped. “There was a long burst of gunfire at one point, but I’m not sure if it was from the aircraft or from the bandits,” the still-dazed student said as he returned to the school from where he was taken. Teacher Nura Ahmad said 187 pupils were kidnapped from the Kuriga secondary school and 100 others from the primary school. Reporting from the compound that houses both primary and secondary schools, Idris said it was moved as the “earlier location was vulnerable to attacks and mass abductions which have forced the closure of many schools in northern Nigeria”. This has “caused the region to lag behind the rest of the country in student enrollment”, Idris reported, adding that the government and aid agencies are concerned about the future of millions of children in Nigeria. Kaduna Governor Uba Sani insisted security forces were “working round the clock” to bring back the children. “There is no peace or peace of mind in this family,” parent Shehu Lawal told Al Jazeera. “None in the village. We hardly eat or sleep. We only come home in daytime and find a safer place to stay the night. That’s our lives since the abduction,” said Lawal, whose child is missing. While Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu ordered security forces to pursue the attackers, the military has been hampered by a multitude of crises across Africa’s most populous country and is spread thin, and local vigilante groups are not enough of a bulwark against the armed gangs. Kidnappings are common in northwestern and central Nigeria where criminal gangs occupying vast, remote forests terrorise residents. Known as bandits, these groups loot villages, and kill and kidnap residents, especially students, for huge ransoms. Some 1,400 children have been abducted in Nigeria since 300 girls were taken from the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014, sparking widespread international condemnation. Attackers also took 150 children in Kaduna in July 2021, the previous major abduction. The students were reunited months later after their families paid ransoms. Adblock test (Why?)
Palestinians fear Israeli violence in Jerusalem during Ramadan
Occupied East Jerusalem – The mood in occupied East Jerusalem is tense as the city’s Palestinians prepare for Islam’s holy month of Ramadan. From dawn to sunset, Ramadan requires practising Muslims to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual relations before they break their fast with friends, family and communities. But the Palestinians who spoke to Al Jazeera say they are too depressed to hang up decorations or engage in festivities. Many are just praying for a ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 30,000 people have been killed by Israel in retaliation for a deadly attack on Israeli civilians and military outposts by the Qassam Brigades and other Palestinian armed fighters on October 7. Others fear that Israeli authorities and far-right settlers will attack Palestinians during the holy month as part of a broader campaign of collective punishment, as has happened before. “I’m really worried about possible provocation,” said Munir Nuseibah, a Palestinian human rights lawyer who lives in East Jerusalem. “We learned from the past that the more there is a police presence and police intervention in East Jerusalem during Ramadan, the more we will see [violent] confrontations.” History of violence During Ramadan, tensions frequently mount around Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Palestinians from across the occupied West Bank yearn to pray in the mosque, yet Israeli police have traditionally obstructed access and attacked worshippers. Israeli police detain a Palestinian worshipper at Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan on April 5, 2023 [Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo] Last year, Palestinians resorted to barricading themselves inside the mosque to prevent Israeli police from interfering with itikaf, a religious practice that entails spending whole nights in prayer and worship in mosques. But Israeli security managed to break through, firing stun grenades and tear gas and indiscriminately beating worshippers, including women and the elderly. At least 450 Palestinian men were arrested. “There is nothing inherently violent about Al-Aqsa and certainly nothing inherently violent about Ramadan. It’s important to recall that because some people get the idea that this is all about Islam,” said Daniel Siedmann, a lawyer and resident of Jerusalem. Palestinians attribute most of the violence to the provocative measures taken by Israeli authorities, which occupy the city and the holy site. Israeli police often allow hundreds of Israeli Jews – who refer to Al-Aqsa Mosque as the Temple Mount – access to the holy site, which violates the latest status-quo agreement that Israel, Jordan, Palestine and the United States affirmed in 2015. The agreement stipulates that Al-Aqsa Mosque is a place of worship exclusively for Muslims, yet grants access to non-Muslims on specific days and hours. However, many fear that far-right Israeli ministers may try to provoke Palestinians by allowing Israelis into the mosque to taunt or clash with worshippers. “There is caution and fear from everyone that Israeli settlers will try and provoke Palestinians. The Israeli government is against the Palestinian people,” said Rony, a 27-year-old Palestinian from occupied East Jerusalem. [embedded content] A flashpoint? Israeli police are controlled by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right minister of national security. In February, he called for barring Palestinian residents in the West Bank from praying in the mosque during Ramadan. Israeli officials later overrode his suggestion in an apparent attempt to maintain calm in Jerusalem, but did say they would impose some restrictions on “security grounds”. Seidmann said Ben-Gvir could still spark chaos, even if he is commanding officers outside the compound. “Just because Ben-Gvir is not influencing what happens at the gates of Al-Aqsa doesn’t mean that he won’t cause problems 200 or 300 metres [220 to 330 yards] away from the mosque,” he told Al Jazeera. Any violence against Palestinian worshippers in East Jerusalem or the rest of the occupied West Bank could trigger mass unrest, warns Ibrahim Matar, a Christian Palestinian from occupied East Jerusalem. He said Al-Aqsa is symbolic for all Palestinians and recalled how the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat walked away from the heavily criticised peace process in 2000, in part because Israel insisted on maintaining sovereignty over the mosque. Two months later, Israel’s then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon stormed Al-Aqsa with more than 1,000 heavily armed policemen and soldiers. The move led to outrage which culminated in the second Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israel’s occupation, that lasted for five years. Tens of thousands of Muslims pray near the Dome of the Rock in Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on April 17, 2023, 27 Ramadan, believed to be Laylat al-Qadr, one of the holiest nights during the month [Hazem Bader/AFP] In the shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza, Matar believes that a similar move by the Israelis could set off another chapter of popular unrest. “Al-Aqsa could be a flashpoint for another war,” he told Al Jazeera. Under the shadow of war Palestinian citizens of Israel and those in the occupied territory say the ongoing bloodshed in Gaza is hanging over everyone like a dark cloud. US President Joe Biden has attempted to broker a truce in Gaza to retrieve Israeli captives still held by Hamas and calm tensions during Ramadan. But with prospects for a ceasefire looking slim, Rony believes the war will affect the situation between Palestinians and Israelis in Jerusalem. He said many Palestinians are “dying inside” from watching scenes of the devastating war on television and social media. He also fears that Israeli officials or ministers will exploit their anger by harassing Palestinians in East Jerusalem. “Most of us feel like we are in a house prison. [We feel] like we have to stay at home to avoid being hit or harassed [during Ramadan],” he told Al Jazeera Matar agrees, adding that Gaza and Al-Aqsa have a symbiotic relationship. He recalled the short 11-day war between Hamas and Israel in 2021, which was triggered by Israel attacking worshippers in Al-Aqsa and evicting Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah, a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. Similar unrest could unfold this Ramadan. “If one part of Palestine is suffering, then every part of Palestine suffers,” Matar told Al Jazeera. [embedded
Deadly blast hits Pakistani city of Peshawar
DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY, The blast in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, wounded one person believed to be in a critical condition. At least two people have been killed in a blast in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, according to police officials. The blast near the Board Bazaar area of the city, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, wounded one person who has been admitted to Lady Reading Hospital. He is believed to be in a critical condition. Local media reported that explosives were planted on a motorcycle, but it has yet to be confirmed by officials. Counterterrorism officials have arrived at the scene of the blast as an investigation has begun to determine the nature of the explosion. More details to follow. Adblock test (Why?)