‘Months of practical fasting’: Gazans struggle to celebrate Ramadan
Every evening during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the man would pass by the streets of Rawo and Altatar, beating his drum and calling the faithful to wake them up for suhoor., the meal before sunrise. His nighttime mission was illuminated by Ramadan lights and twinkling decorations.
But this Ramadan, Mrs. Altatar’s street is eerie. The man, called a musahharati in Arabic, is absent. There are no decorations or electricity, and the street is surrounded by buildings destroyed or damaged by the Israeli bombardment. Their own house was also partially destroyed.
“There is no Ramadan,” she said, referring to the month in which Muslims fast all day. “We miss our families and gatherings, the food, even the simplest things like the sweet juices, the Ramadan decorations and lamps that filled the streets,” said Ms. Altatar, a photographer who worked at a private school before the war.
Israel’s war in Gaza has transformed Ramadan, which began on Monday, from a colorful and noisy gathering to one observed against a backdrop of gray rubble and dark, empty streets.
Without a hoped-for ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the armed group that has controlled Gaza for years, a time of religious devotion, dawn-to-dusk fasting and charity is now a daily struggle for survival. For many Gazans, attempts to bring some cheer to the enclave are met with a mountain of despair.
According to Gaza health authorities, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli bombardment, and the threat of famine looms as a result of Israel’s near-complete siege. The war, now in its sixth month, began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 240 prisoners, Israeli officials said.
Families, who once gathered during large celebrations to mark the end of a day of fasting, have been separated and dispersed as most of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have fled their homes. Many now live in overcrowded tent camps.
Many mosques where nightly Ramadan prayers were held have been bombed into rubble. Israel has accused Hamas of operating from some mosques in Gaza, an accusation Hamas denies.
The most basic foods, such as dates and drinking water with which Muslims traditionally break their fast, are virtually absent.
Children’s happiness is also lacking, especially when they take to the streets after iftar – breaking the fast – with their Ramadan lamps and toys, she said.
“Now everyone is inside before the sun goes down, and everyone is scared,” she said.
This year’s Ramadan also comes as many Gazans have lost everything and the enclave is nearing famine, United Nations officials say. At least 27 Palestinian children have died from malnutrition, dehydration and lack of baby food, health officials in Gaza said.
Human rights groups, UN experts and most recently the European UnionThe foreign policy chief has said that Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians. Israel has pushed throughout the war to allow as much aid as possible into Gaza and has blamed the delays on UN staffing and logistics. Aid groups and U.N. officials have argued that it would be better for Israel to ease truck entry restrictions at established border crossings into the enclave and do more to speed up the delivery of goods into Gaza.
The people in Gaza are so hungry that some of them are too resorted to food leaves and fodder.
“We have been practically fasting for months,” Ms. Altatar said. “Before Ramadan, we ate two meals a day if we could find enough food. Otherwise we would only eat once a day, at sunset.”
Almost no aid reaches northern Gaza, where Ms. Altatar lives with her parents. U.N. agencies have largely stopped sending aid to the north, citing Israeli restrictions and security fears.
Many Muslims usually attempt to read the entire Quran during the month of Ramadan and perform additional nightly prayers called taraweeh..
“In the north, people rarely gather to pray taraweeh in an open space because they fear being hit by an airstrike,” she said. “Of course there are almost no mosques anymore. They were all bombed.”
Her days are now filled with gathering firewood, building fires and wandering markets in an attempt to put together a meal her family can afford, she said.
As she walks, she dreams that one of the relief air drops will land near her.
In what seemed like a cruel mockery to many Gazans, days before Ramadan began, one resident said that Israeli warplanes had landed leaflets across parts of northern Gaza that read: “May your fasting be accepted, your sins forgiven and a delicious iftar.”
Asked about the leaflets, the Israeli military did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Despite the war and the continued presence of Israeli ground forces, some Gazans have tried to imbue the holy month with as many festivities and religious celebrations as the conflict allows.
“In northern Gaza, hunger and fear have taken us over,” Maher Habboush, a bodybuilder in Gaza, said in a speech. video on his Instagram account. The video showed dozens of children and adults cleaning the streets of a neighborhood and painting the walls pink, blue and yellow. “But we will greet the blessed month with happiness and optimism because Ramadan is a blessing.”
In previous years, Gazans competed with each other to decorate their homes and streets. Now a Ramadan lantern, called a fanous and once ubiquitous in the streets and homes of Gaza, is a luxury that few can afford.
“My little daughter cries all day for a fanous,” said Nisreen Abu Tooq, 28, a mother of five who fled with her family from the north to a school in southern Gaza. “I can’t even afford to buy it. We cannot cheer up our little children with the simplest things.”
On Sunday, Ms Abu Tooq said she was sad when she heard that the next day was Ramadan because she had not expected the war to last so long.
“It’s a big difference to be in a place where you don’t belong and far from your home, with family, neighbors and friends,” she said.
Fadia Nassar, 43, wanted to buy Ramadan lanterns for her daughter, nieces and nephews, who all share a room in a house with other displaced Gazans in the city of Deir al Balah, but the prices were out of reach.
She also thought that such decorative touches might seem insensitive to other children living in the house who had lost parents or other relatives.
She had just returned from the market and couldn’t buy anything because everything was so expensive. Instead, she said, they would rely on canned goods to break the fast, she said.
The markets were packed, but instead of the busy and festive atmosphere of Ramadan’s past, when songs blared through the streets, there was now tension and fear of lawlessness, she said.
“There is no joy, no songs about Ramadan, no sweets about Ramadan,” she said. “This has all been eradicated.”
A local band from Gaza, Sol Band, came up with a song for this Ramadan, including a short film video clip filmed in Gaza, capturing the grim holy month they observed.
The video shows parents and children making decorations from plastic bottles and construction paper and hanging them on tents.
“There are no more houses in our neighborhood, and the houses have turned into tents,” the text reads. “Your crescent moon has appeared, Ramadan. What is the crescent of our joy?”