“We have been fasting for five months”: Palestinians prepare for Ramadan amid war in Gaza

The Palestinian people are preparing for Ramadan in a grim environment and with increased security measures from the Israeli authorities. War and famine continue in Gaza, a ghost of sorts for the usually festive Muslim holy month, as negotiations are held to guarantee a ceasefire.

According to ReutersThousands of police have been deployed to the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City, where tens of thousands of worshipers are expected each day at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites. This time was the center of problems and one of the starting points of the latest war in 2021 between Israel and Hamas.

Israel’s relentless campaign in Gaza has sparked alarm around the world as the risk of famine threatens to increase the death toll, which has already topped 31,000.

Depending on lunar observations, forecasts indicate that Ramadan will begin this Monday or Tuesday. But unlike in previous years, the usual decorations around the Old City were not put up and the same gloomy atmosphere was evident in West Bank towns, where about 400 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with security forces or Jewish settlers since the start of the war.

“This year we have decided that the Old City of Jerusalem will not be decorated out of respect for the blood of our children, the elderly and the martyrs,” said Ammar Sider, one of the community leaders in the Old City quoted by the newspaper. Reuters.

What is Ramadan?
Ramadan falls in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, when Muslims practice the ritual of fasting, during which each day of the month they abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual intercourse from sunrise to sunset. The date of the celebration changes every year, but always lasts 29 or 30 days.

Hope for a ceasefire
Hopes for a ceasefire that would allow Ramadan to pass peacefully and allow the return of at least some of the 134 Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip appear to have been dashed, with talks in Cairo appearing to be blocked, according to reports Reuters.

In the ruins of the Gaza Strip, where half of the 2.3 million people live in the southern city of Rafah, many of them living in plastic tents and facing severe food shortages, the atmosphere is equally grim.

“We didn’t prepare for Ramadan because we’ve already been fasting for five months,” said Maha, a mother of five who typically decorated her home and stocked her refrigerator with food for the celebration. evenings when people break their fast.

“There is no food, only canned food and rice. Most of the food is sold at unimaginably high prices,” said the same source. Reuters, via a messaging app from Rafah, where she is sheltering with her family.

In the West Bank, which has seen a record of violence for more than two years and a new rise in violence after the Gaza war, the risks are also high, with cities such as Jenin, Tulkarm or Nablus bracing for more clashes.

In Israel, fear of Palestinian violence has also led to increased security measures.

For many of those waiting, there is no alternative but to hope for peace.

“Ramadan is a blessed month, although this year is not like every year. Next Ramadan we wish for the return of Gaza, we hope that all the destruction and siege in Gaza will change and everything will return to better conditions,” Nehad El said. -Jed, displaced with her family in Gaza, quoted in Reuters.