Memories of Ramadans past cold comfort for Gazans who now fear death and famine
▶ Palestinians look back to better days when families were one and their homes did not lie in ruins
Palestinians in Gaza say this Ramadan is likely to be the worst in living memory, and many fear they will not survive the holy month because of continual Israeli attacks.
Others wonder how they can possibly eat iftar meals when famine threatens.
Where the streets were once full of colour, the devastation in Gaza – more than half of the strip’s about 400,000 buildings have bombed, according to the UN – means grey and white dust and smoke add to the sombre atmosphere.
Instead of the throng of markets as people buy groceries and sing songs welcoming Ramadan, the thud of explosions and artillery pierces the air, racking the nerves of Gazans, many of whom have lost their homes to shelling and bombing.
More than 31,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive in the enclave, after Hamas-led militants attacked the south of Israel in October and killed more than 1,200.
Some Palestinians are clinging to the hope that a ceasefire for the holy month is still possible despite stalled negotiations for a truce. Ramadan begins today after the crescent moon was sighted yeaterday.
Musa Al Shami, 48, will spend the holy month with his two sons in one of the UN schools in Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
His wife and other five children are displaced in the south of the enclave.
“Ramadan is approaching this year and we are scattered, each one in a different place,” Mr Al Shami told The National.
His home in Sheikh Zayed City, in northern Gaza, was destroyed.
“We will miss the family gatherings and the lovely atmosphere that we’ve become used to in previous years,” Mr Al Shami said.
He recalled how his family would lovingly decorate the house, and he would buy special lanterns for his daughter and young son, who used to hold and play with them.
At the beginning of the war, he decided to send his wife and young children to the south with his relatives.
His older sons stayed with him because they were afraid Israeli soldiers might arrest them at a checkpoint.
He thought they would return within a month, never imagining his family would stay away for this long and that Ramadan would come while war raged around him.
“Every time I remember our family gatherings in Ramadan and how they will be absent this year, it chokes me up and I wish that what we are going through is just a dream and it will end.”
Amid the war, Islam Ibrahim, 38, cannot help but cry each time she remembers that Ramadan is approaching. She refuses to leave devastated Gaza city for the south because she wants to stay with her father, who insists on remaining in his home.
He fears a repeat of 1948, when about 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes and ultimately expelled from their lands by Israeli forces.
“Ramadan is a holy month, and we love it, but we also love the family gatherings and visits,” Ms Ibrahim told The National.
She said that she used to visit her uncles’ homes, but now she cannot. Both her uncles died in the Israeli assault on the enclave.
Her only married sister will not join them for the first Ramadan meal, as usual, because she is in the south of the Gaza Strip, while many of her close friends have left Gaza.
“I feel like a stranger in my city. The people around me are not the same people I used to know. The war has changed us from within, and the streets I used to walk on are not the same because they are destroyed,” she said. “This will be the most difficult Ramadan we will experience, as we are living in the midst of a famine with no food or drink.”
Umm Khaleel Othman, 55, from Gaza city, sits in a tent in Rafah, in the south of the strip, recounting how she used to decorate her home – which was burnt down – at Ramadan.
“I used to gather all my sons, daughters, and their families to end the fast of the first day in my house, but this Ramadan is very difficult. It has changed our habits and deprived us of simple rights,” she said.
Umm Khaleel used to decorate her house with her grandsons’ help, but now there will be no decorations or any other Ramadan traditions she holds dear.
Both of her grandsons were evacuated from the strip, an arduous, risky and expensive journey for those who can get out of harm’s way.
“My two sons left Gaza with their families, and one daughter is still in Gaza.
“The other is with me here in the same tent; my heart cannot bear this sorrow.”
Umm Khaleel cannot imagine that her daughter, who is still in Gaza with her family, will not come on the first day to eat with her.
“I am worried about my daughter and what she will eat. She now only eats rice, but it is Ramadan. How will she keep eating rice every day?” Umm Khaleel said.
She still holds out hope that an extended truce will take effect before Ramadan begins, so she can go back to the north of Gaza and be reunited with her daughter after more than 100 days apart.
We will miss the family gatherings and the lovely atmosphere that we’ve become used to in previous years
MUSA AL SHAMI
Jabalia camp resident