Before the war, Ramadan was one of the most joyful festivals in Gaza. The month of dawn-to-dusk fasting drew crowds into the mosques, and streets were festooned with colorful lanterns typical of the season.
But an enormous gap stretches between the happy holiday memories of a seemingly irrecoverable past and the desolation and grief left by the 15-month war in Gaza. The daytime fasting began on Saturday, but many Palestinians in the territory see little to celebrate.
Maisa Arafa, 29, who said that her brother had been killed during the war, has been living in a tent with other relatives as they clear away rubble from their devastated home in northern Gaza in hopes of moving into one room that is still intact.
“More than anything, I wish my brother could come back. That would be the only thing to make Ramadan feel like it used to,” Ms. Arafa said as she shopped in downtown Gaza City. “This is not the Ramadan we knew, or even the life we knew.”
Since the Israel-Hamas cease-fire went into effect in mid-January, hundreds of truckloads per day of food and other supplies have been entering the enclave, offering a degree of relief from the intense hunger many felt during the war.
Abdelhalim Awad, who oversees a bakery and supermarket in central Gaza, said that prices had dropped since the worst days of the war, when a 55-pound sack of flour could cost hundreds of dollars.
“Goods are now available,” Mr. Awad said as he watched holiday shoppers come and go, buying what they could for communal meals to break the fast at night. “But people are still only able to buy what they really need.”
The war began after the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed about 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken back to Gaza as hostages. The subsequent Israeli military campaign laid waste to large swaths of the Gaza Strip.
Many are still displaced or have returned to their homes only to find them ruined by the fighting.
The Israeli campaign killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children, according to local health officials who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Israeli military said it had “eliminated” nearly 20,000 Hamas operatives, without providing detailed evidence to back up that claim.
Muhanned Hamad, an accountant from Gaza City, which is in the north of the enclave, stood in front of a toy vendor’s stall in what was once a major downtown market. He said he was looking for a holiday lantern to give to his neighbors, a mother and son who had lost their immediate family during the war.
“This Ramadan is nothing like the ones before,” said Mr. Hamed, 39. “The war has drained it of meaning.”
He added, “Even with the cease-fire, nothing here feels worthy of celebration.”
