‘We have been fasting for five months’: Gazans brace for Ramadan amid war

Families in Gaza will be forced to observe Ramadan in severely overcrowded shelters without enough food, clean water or other essentials.

The holy month is expected to begin on Monday.

Muslims fast every day from dawn to sunset during Ramadan but Fakhri, 32, an employee at Al Shifa Hospital, said people in the besieged enclave had been making do without much for a long time.

“We have been fasting for five months, living on one meal,” he said.

The war has left much of the Palestinian territory in ruins and created a humanitarian catastrophe, with most of its population displaced and “one step away from famine”, the UN has said.

“In Gaza, the entire population from some 2.2 million people is facing at least crisis levels of acute hunger,” Dina Esposito, an assistant to the administrator of USAid, told a Senate foreign relations committee hearing on Wednesday.

The UN children’s agency said at least 10 children were reported to have died from dehydration and malnutrition in northern Gaza, as Israel restricts food deliveries.

Desperate civilians have been chasing aid lorries. More than 100 were killed last week when Israeli troops escorting a convoy opened fire.

“We’ve spent difficult Ramadans during wars before but this is the first time we’re displaced from our homes and our cities,” said Hassan, 38, an English teacher in Rafah.

It is Gaza’s southernmost city and the population has soared to about 1.4 million due to the influx of displaced people.

Markets in Gaza have not received new stock since the war began on October 7.

Whatever little food is allowed to enter is distributed mostly in southern Gaza.

Shortages have pushed prices of goods beyond the reach of most people.

“In the past five months, I’ve been spending money that I had been saving for a rainy day and nothing remains from this money now,” said Ahmed, 34, a civil engineer, who was displaced from Gaza city. “We are living on donations.”

Traditionally, Ramadan is a time of worship, with special prayers known as taraweeh performed at mosques every night. But for Gazans, this will not be possible this year.

“I used to perform the taraweeh prayers in a different mosque every day,” said Omar Nehad, a displaced Palestinian in Rafah. “Now there are no mosques left. They have all been destroyed.”

Every year, parents and children go shopping for Ramadan lanterns and decorations for their homes.

This year, there are barely any decorations on sale, and little money to spare for them.

Concrete-built homes have been destroyed by war and replaced with makeshift tents.

“We will hang the lanterns outside our tent,” said Umm Mohamed from Rafah.

Nevertheless, children have found a way to celebrate, lighting up pieces of steel wool and swinging them really fast to create home-made fireworks.

“They play and try to create joy,” said Rafah resident Nedal Abouleneen.