Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar has warned of a flare-up of tensions between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in the holy fasting month of Ramadan, which will start next month.
Israeli media reports said Bar made the warning during a several-day trip to the United States where he met FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The Ynet news site attributed the possibility of a flare-up to the overlap of the Muslim holy month and the Jewish holiday of Passover this year.
Israeli settlers storm the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of al-Quds to mark the holiday in a provocative move.
Bar returned from Washington, DC, on Sunday. It was his first known visit to the US since taking office five months ago.
Last month, the US administration of President Joe Biden warned Israel that ongoing tension in al-Quds might lead the region to possible war.
Following consultations with diplomats and experts on the ground, the Biden administration has identified the confluence of religious holidays in April as a “recipe for disaster in Jerusalem [al-Quds],” The Times of Israel cited an American official as saying.
Tensions heightened across the Palestinian territories on February 13, when Israeli forces and illegal settlers renewed their attacks against Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah. The neighborhood has been the scene of frequent crackdowns by Israeli regime forces on the Palestinians protesting against the threatened expulsion of dozens of families from their homes in favor of Israeli settler groups.
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The initial tensions that erupted in Sheikh Jarrah last year in part sparked a May 2021 war between the Israeli regime and resistance groups in the Gaza Strip.
In the latest bombardment campaign, at least 260 Palestinians, including over 60 children, were killed in a time span of 11 days that began on May 10. The Gaza-based resistance movements retaliated.
The regime was eventually forced to announce a ceasefire, brokered by Egypt, which came into force in the early hours of May 21.
The Gaza Strip, home to some two million people, has been under a blockade imposed by Israel since June 2007.
