Ramadan has the ‘taste of blood’

GAZA: RESIDENTS DON’T FEEL JOY OF THE HOLY MONTH If size of aid is not increased, famine is imminent – WFP

The first day of Ramadan came and went in Gaza, with residents marking a joyless iftar against a backdrop of famine, disease and displacement as the war in the besieged territory ground on more than five months after it began.

As the Muslim world welcomed the start of the holy month on Monday, Gazans faced continued Israeli bombardments and a spiralling humanitarian crisis.

With the flow of food and other assistance slowed to a trickle, a United Nations report citing the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said 25 people have now died from malnutrition and dehydration –most of them children.

In Gaza’s southern border city of Rafah, where 1.5 million people have sought refuge, the usual generous iftar meal marking the end of the day’s fast was replaced by “canned food and beans”, said displaced Khan Yunis resident Mohammad al-Masry. “We didn’t prepare anything. What do displaced people have?” he said.

“We don’t feel the joy of Ramadan... Look at the people staying in tents in the cold.”

Om Muhammad Abu Matar, also displaced from Khan Yunis, told AFP that this year, Ramadan had “the taste of blood and misery, separation and oppression”.

Aid groups have been warning of the risk of famine in Gaza for weeks and the UN has reported particular difficulty in accessing the territory’s north for deliveries of food and other aid.

“We are running out of time,” Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Programme (WFP), said Monday. “If we do not exponentially increase the size of aid going into the northern areas, famine is imminent.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Monday for “silencing the guns” during the Muslim holy month and said he was “appalled and outraged that conflict is continuing”.

In Gaza City, surrounded by collapsed buildings, one family gathered around a table next to the ruins of their home to break the fast on Monday. “Today is the first day of Ramadan. We decided to come and break the fast here in our home that was struck, despite the destruction and the rubble,” said Om Shaher Al Qta’a.

Earlier in the day, Zaki Abu Mansour told AFP in Rafah that his last meal before the fast began had been meagre and he didn’t know what his next one would be.

“Here’s my kitchen,” the displaced Khan Yunis resident added, gesturing to a corner of his tent. “I have only a tomato and a cucumber – and that’s all I have.”

With aid entering Gaza by truck far below pre-war levels, and Gazans increasingly desperate, foreign governments have turned to airdrops and are now trying to open a maritime aid corridor from Cyprus. –