On the eve of Ramadan, Jerusalem’s Old City offers little festivity as Gaza war rages

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JERUSALEM — On the eve of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Jerusalem’s Old City shows few of its usual holiday features.

Nearly half of the grotto-like gift shops are closed behind metal shutters. The narrow streets leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, are eerily empty. Absent are the fairy lights and glowing lanterns that would normally hang above the hurrying worshipers.

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Ramadan preparations in Jerusalem, the spiritual heart of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have been subdued due to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, now in its sixth month. With more than 30,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza and hundreds of thousands going hungry, there is little room for expressions of joy.

“This will be the black Ramadan,” Abu Mousam Haddad said outside his coffee stall near Damascus Gate, one of the main entrances to the Old City.

But in the coming days, attention is likely to shift from Gaza to Al-Aqsa, which has been a frequent focus of rapidly escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the past.

Hamas, which described its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel as a battle for Muslim rights in Al-Aqsa, is seeking that eruption now in hopes of engaging Israeli forces on new fronts and enhancing its influence in ceasefire talks in Gaza.

Militants have urged Palestinians across Israel and the occupied West Bank to go to the mosque during Ramadan to defy planned Israeli restrictions on worship and movement.

Although such restrictions have often triggered clashes in the past, it is unclear whether Palestinians will risk confrontations in the current climate in which Israeli forces are forcefully cracking down on any perceived threats.

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“There is great fear among people about what Ramadan will be like this year and how the Israeli police will behave with respect to entering and exiting… the city,” said Imad Mona, owner of a bookstore on the outskirts of the city. Old City.

Israel has limited access to Al-Aqsa to varying degrees over the years, including banning access to young men, citing security concerns. The Israeli government has provided few details ahead of this year’s Ramadan, which could begin as early as Sunday night. But he has said that some West Bank Palestinians will be allowed to pray at Al-Aqsa.

In the past, Israeli forces storming the holy site clashed with stone-throwing Palestinians and barricaded themselves inside, sometimes to protest Israeli access restrictions. These clashes have triggered escalations, including rocket fire by Hamas, which triggered a brief war between Israel and Hamas in 2021.

The complex has long been a deeply contested religious space, as it is located on the Temple Mount, which Jews consider their holiest site. It is located in east Jerusalem, a section of the city that Israel occupied during the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed. The Palestinians want to make it the capital of their own future state.

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The United States and other international mediators had pushed for a ceasefire in Gaza to coincide with the start of Ramadan. However, there has been no progress.

Israel remains committed to continuing its invasion and annihilating Hamas, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 hostages on October 7. The militant group freed dozens of hostages during a truce in November, but refuses to release more without guarantees of a complete end to hostilities.

Most shop owners in the Old City refused to share their opinions on the upcoming Ramadan. Israel has detained dozens of Palestinians for social media posts about the war in Gaza since it began.

Some who wanted to speak said that more Israeli police have been deployed in the Old City since October. According to shop owners, young Palestinians have been regularly banned from entering the Al-Aqsa complex for midday prayers on Fridays since the war began. This has fueled speculation about other possible restrictions. Israeli police did not respond to requests for comment.

According to Israeli media, the country’s firebrand National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, has been pushing to keep all Palestinians out of the West Bank, as well as young people who are among Israel’s more than 2 million Palestinian citizens. . His spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

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The Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian affairs in the West Bank, known as COGAT, said on Friday that some West Bank Muslims would be allowed to enter from the territory for Ramadan prayers, but gave no further details. Last year, hundreds of thousands were able to enter, most of them women, children and the elderly.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also been vague, saying that only a similar number of people as last year would be allowed to pray at Al-Aqsa during the first week of Ramadan. He said this will be evaluated weekly throughout the month. No further details were made public.

Under an informal agreement since 1967, the complex is managed by a Jordan-based Muslim religious body known as the Waqf. Jews are allowed to visit the grounds, but not pray there. The agreement has broken down in recent years as large groups of Jews, including hardline religious nationalists, have visited regularly. Some of them have tried to pray there.

In the days before Ramadan, Palestinians in the West Bank were unsure if they would be able to attend prayers.

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Palestinians in the territory generally need a permit to enter east Jerusalem, which Israel considers part of its united capital, although its annexation is not recognized by most of the international community. Since October 7, Israel has banned Palestinians from entering Jerusalem or any part of Israel.

“The dream of every Palestinian, Muslim and Arab is to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque” during Ramadan, said Akram al Baghdadi, a Ramallah resident who has an extended family spread across the West Bank and Gaza.

The holy month also threatens to deepen divisions within Israel’s fractious cabinet, with ministers already divided over how to conduct the Gaza war.

In a post on X, Ben Gvir denounced Netanyahu’s decision to allow Palestinians access to Al-Aqsa for Ramadan prayers. He wrote that Hamas’ “celebrations on the Temple Mount” do not amount to “a complete victory,” referring to Netanyahu’s wartime rallying cry.

Ben Gvir, who has visited the Al-Aqsa compound several times, is also openly opposed to any ceasefire agreement with Hamas. He has repeatedly called for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and the establishment of Israeli settlements, ideas that most cabinet members oppose.

Months of conflict and tension have also brought economic difficulties, with a lack of tourists and Palestinians shopping in the Old City.

“Not only my shop is affected, but also all the merchants here,” said Jihad Abu Salih, a sweets and pastry merchant in the city. “It’s sad.”

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