RAMADAN IN GAZA

Ramadan has a special place in every Muslim's heart. We wait for it all year. As a small child, I remember my excitement at hanging colorful lanterns on the house. My parents taught my siblings and me to abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk. But the holy month of Ramadan started early for Muslims in Gaza this year. In some sense, we've been fasting since October.

- ABEER BARAKAT

The idea of fasting is to train yourself to be patient, to elevate your soul from mundane desires, to try to free your mind from evil impulses and do good deeds for people around you. Nothing could have prepared me for Ramadan this year. I wasn't sure I would even survive until Ramadan-at least 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, according to the health ministry in the Strip, and 80% of the population has been displaced amid Israel's ongoing bombardment. For those of us lucky to still be alive, fleeing from place to place, we have undergone a partial fast for months, not wanting to eat the scant food of the families kind enough to shelter us, unable to find food to purchase in the markets or to afford what can be found.

Since the war began, my life has been turned upside down. My home in Gaza City, where my children and I used to hang Ramadan lights, is now destroyed and my family scattered.