Gazans struggle to mark Ramadan amid war and starvation

Around the Muslim world, thoughts are with victims of the ongoing conflict

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GAZA For Muslims worldwide, Ramadan is a time of prayer, reflection and joyful evening meals, but all Gazans wish for this year is an end to five months of war and suffering.

It is a hope shared widely across the Islamic world, where the thoughts of many are with Gaza ahead of the fasting month, which starts with the sighting of the crescent moon on March 10 or 11.

The war sparked by Hamas' Oct 7 attack against Israel has devastated Gaza, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and triggered violence elsewhere in the Middle East, from Lebanon to the seas off Yemen.

Amid the ruins of southern Gaza, Ms Nevin al-Siksek sat recently outside her makeshift tent, distracting her young daughter from the carnage around them with a plastic Ramadan lantern.

The colourful lanterns, known as fanous, are an iconic symbol of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar marked by dawnto-dusk fasting and, in better times, festive evening iftar meals with family and friends.

Across Gaza this year, the lights are among the few signs signalling the coming holy month amid dire warnings of mass starvation.

While international mediators were hoping for a truce in time for Ramadan, no breakthrough had come by March 8.

Much of the territory of 2.4 million people has become a hellscape of bombed-out neighbourhoods, emaciated children and mass graves dug in the sand.

Ms Siksek and her family, instead of tucking into lamb and sweets at the home they had to flee in northern Gaza, will break their fast in the bare-bones tent they share with other displaced civilians.

If they can find anything to eat, that is.

"We do not have any food to prepare," Ms Siksek said as her husband, Mr Mohammed Yasser Rayhan, nodded in agreement.