The first day of Ramadan arrived on Monday like others for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza: stalked by famine and disease, shivering in tents and threatened by bombs.
As the Muslim world welcomed the holy month and its customary daytime fast, many Gaza Palestinians faced bombardment that saw residents once more search through the rubble of destroyed homes for survivors and bodies.
A United Nations report, citing the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said 25 people have now died from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children, more than five months into fighting between Israel and Hamas.
The UN has reported particular difficulty in accessing northern Gaza for deliveries of food and other aid. Throughout the territory, people are feeling shortages even more during Ramadan.
In Gaza’s southern border city of Rafah, where 1.5 million people have sought refuge, the usually-generous iftar meal, marking the end of the day’s fast, was replaced by “canned food and beans”, said displaced Khan Younis resident Mohammad al-Masry.
“We didn’t prepare anything. What do displaced people have?” al-Masry said. “We don’t feel the joy of Ramadan … Look at the people staying in tents in the cold.”
“We don’t know what we are going to eat to break the fast,” Zaki Abu Mansour, 63, said inside his tent. “I have only a tomato and a cucumber … and I have no money to buy anything.”
Fighting raged across Gaza, even as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for “silencing the guns” during the Muslim holy month and said he was “appalled and outraged that conflict is continuing”.
Hamas authorities reported at least 67 people killed since Sunday, with more than 40 air strikes across the territory.
Despite widespread deprivation, some found ways to celebrate Ramadan’s start, fashioning meagre decorations and distributing traditional lanterns between their tents.
In Rafah, dozens offered prayers in the ruins of a mosque hit by an Israeli air strike just days ago.
Many of Rafah’s displaced are sheltered in a sea of makeshift tents. They sat on the ground between the structures, under a string of decorative lights, to break their fast.
