CAIRO/JERUSALEM/RAFAH: Palestinians prepared for Ramazan in a somber mood with heightened security by Israeli police and the specter of war and hunger in Gaza overshadowing the normally festive Muslim holy month as talks to secure a ceasefire stalled.
Thousands of police officers were deployed in the narrow streets of Jerusalem’s Old City, where tens of thousands of worshipers are expected each day at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, one of Islam’s holiest sites.
The area, considered the holiest site by Jews, who know it as the Temple Mount, has long been a hotbed of trouble and was one of the starting points of the latest war in 2021 between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza.
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That 10-day conflict has been overshadowed by the current war, now in its sixth month. It began on October 7, when thousands of Hamas fighters invaded Israel, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli records.
