Defense minister warns against turning Ramadan into ‘month of jihad’

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan began on Sunday evening, following an announcement by Saudi Arabia.

By Troy O. Fritzhand, The Algemeiner

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant wished Muslim worshipers a peaceful Ramadan, while issuing a stern warning to those looking to use the Muslim holy month to perpetrate terrorism amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Beginning in Arabic, Gallant wished the Muslim community a blessed Ramadan and year ahead in a statement.

He then switched to Hebrew, saying “We are aware that the month of Ramadan may be a month of jihad. We tell everyone who is thinking of trying us: We are ready; don’t make mistakes. I want to bless you and say to everyone, the State of Israel respects freedom of religion, at Al-Aqsa [known to Jews as the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem] and all holy sites.”

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan began on Sunday evening, following an announcement by Saudi Arabia, the custodian of Islam’s holiest sites.

With the ushering in of the month of daily fasting, the Middle East braced for what has been historically a tense time between Israelis and Palestinians.

In Israel, many people refer to Ramadan as “Ramadam,” with the “m” allowing the end of the word to read “dam,” which means blood in Hebrew, to signify the history of terrorism during the month.

This year in particular, with the war raging in Gaza, onlookers abroad, including US President Joe Biden, have warned about the dangers of the conflict continuing into Ramadan, with efforts to secure a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza before the holiday falling short.

Israeli officials pointed the finger at Hamas, with Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad releasing a statement last week saying, “At this stage, Hamas is fortifying its position that it is not interested in the deal and strives to burn the region during Ramadan at the expense of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip.”

Despite the war, Muslim worship at the Temple Mount is set to go uninterrupted.

However, thousands of police officers are stationed throughout Jerusalem, with the highest concentration in the Old City.

Additionally, a special police station will be set up close to the Temple Mount, where police teams, in consultation with Israel’s security establishment and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will discuss daily if anything needs to change.

Biden issued a statement to Muslims on Sunday in which he discussed the war in Gaza, saying Ramadan “comes at a moment of immense pain. The war in Gaza has inflicted terrible suffering on the Palestinian people. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians, including thousands of children.”

Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza say over 30,000 people have died during Israel’s military offensive.

In October, Biden expressed doubt about the accuracy of Hamas’ casualty statistics, which do not distinguish between terrorist combatants and civilians. In recent weeks, however, Biden has made an apparent 180, citing them in his State of the Union address last week.

A recent report from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy found that Hamas’ statistics are “inconsistent, imprecise, and systematically manipulated to downplay the number of men and militants killed.”

Additionally, a professor of statistics and data science at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found a significant number of anomalies and almost impossible trends within the data released by the terror group, further throwing its credibility into question.

Biden also mentioned in his Ramadan statement that he hoped for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“The United States will continue working non-stop to establish an immediate and sustained ceasefire for at least six weeks as part of a deal that releases hostages,” he said.

Hamas, which rules Gaza, murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 253 others as hostages during its Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, launching the current war.