Before the war, Ramadan was one of the most favorable festivals in Gaza. The month of fasting dawn to the soul brought the crowds into the mosques, and the streets were decorated with colorful pheanses typical of the season.
But a huge gap extends between the memories of a happy holiday to the seemingly unwavering past and a desolation and sadness that left a 15-month war in Gaza. The daily post began on Saturday, but many Palestinians see little in the territory.
Maisa Araf, 29, who said her brother was killed during the war, lived in a tent with other relatives because they cleanse the ruins from her devastated home in the northern gauze in the hope that she would move into a room still intact.
“More than anything, I wish my brother could come back. That would be the only thing Ramadan would feel like it used to be,” Mrs. Arafa said as she bought in downtown Gaza. “This is not Ramadan we knew, or even the life we knew.”
Since the Israel-hama stopped fires into force in mid-January, hundreds of trucks of food and other stocks enter the enclave daily, offering a degree of relief from intense hunger that many felt during the war.
Abdelhalim Awad, who oversees the bakery and supermarket in Central Gaza, said prices have fallen from the worst days of the war, when a bag of 55 -pound flour could cost hundreds of dollars.
“The goods are now available,” Mr. Awad said as he watched the holiday customers come and go, buying what they could for municipal meals to break at night. “But people can still buy what they really need.”
The war began after the attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killed about 1,200 people and saw that some 250 others were taken hostage to Gaza. The subsequent Israeli military campaign went to large quantities of gauze tape.
Many are still displaced or returned to their homes just to find them with a shaped fight.
The Israeli campaign killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children, according to local health officers who do not distinguish civilians and fighters. The Israeli army announced that she “eliminated” nearly 20,000 Hamas operatives, without giving detailed evidence that supports this claim.
The Muharnda Hamad, an accountant from the City of Gaza, located in the north of the enclave, stood in front of a toy sales station in the former city center. He said he was looking for a holiday lantern who would give to his neighbors, mother and son, who lost their immediate family during the war.
“This Ramadan is nothing like those before,” said Mr. Hamed, 39. “The war exhausted him with meaning.”
He added, “Even with the end of the fire, nothing here is felt worthy of celebration.”
