Geoffrey Branger / Photo credits: SAID KHATIB / AFP 9:19 a.m., March 10, 2024

As Ramadan begins in 24 hours, negotiations for a truce between Israel and Hamas are at a standstill.

In Gaza, the humanitarian situation is catastrophic and more than 30,000 people have died since the start of the conflict.

The war could even intensify during this holy period for Muslims.

With 24 hours to go before Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims, a truce seems almost impossible in Gaza.

Negotiations are at a standstill.

According to Israeli authorities, Hamas is not interested in an agreement.

Worse, he would even like to ignite the region during Ramadan.

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As King Abdullah II of Jordan said a few days ago, the continuation of the war against Gaza during the holy month of Ramadan would only aggravate the threat of an extension of the conflict.

Joe Biden, earlier this week, again called for a truce in view of the latest assessment: 25,000 women and children have been killed in the Palestinian enclave since the start of the war.

“There has to be a ceasefire. Because if we find ourselves in these circumstances until Ramadan, it could become very, very dangerous in Israel and in Jerusalem,” declared the American president.

“In principle, during Ramadan, we do not wage war”

It must be said that Ramadan is often accompanied by an increase in violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“For states whose regimes today are moderate, I am thinking of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan, Ramadan must correspond to a phase of appeasement,” explains Frédéric Encel, doctor in geopolitics at Sciences Po Paris.

"In principle, during Ramadan, we do not wage war. On the other hand, for those who play the politics of the worst, Hamas, it is on the contrary about setting fires and demonstrating that, during the period of Ramadan, Muslims around the world are in favor of Hamas and will all rise up towards a kind of imaginary apocalypse."

The main point of tension during Ramadan is Jerusalem and in particular the very symbolic Esplanade of Mosques, the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest place in Judaism.

A Hamas leader has already called on all Muslims to go to the Al-Aqsa mosque from Monday.