JABALIYA: Before the war, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan was a festive time of increased worship, social gatherings and cheer for Fatima Al-Absi. Together with her husband, the resident of Jabaliya in Gaza said she used to do Ramadan shopping, visit relatives and head to the mosque for prayers.
But the Israel-Hamas war has shredded many of the familiar and cherished threads of Ramadan as Al-Absi once knew it: her husband and a son-in-law have been killed, her home was damaged and burnt and the mosque she attended during Ramadan destroyed, she said.
“Everything has changed,” she said on Saturday as her family observed the first day of Ramadan. “There’s no husband, no home, no proper food and no proper life.”
For Al-Absi and other Gaza residents, Ramadan started this year under a fragile ceasefire agreement that paused more than 15 months of a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated the Gaza Strip. Compared to last Ramadan, many found relief in the truce — but there’s also worry and fear about what’s next and grief over the personal and collective losses, the raw wounds and the numerous scars left behind.
“I’ve lost a lot,” said the 57-year-old grandmother, who’s been reduced to eking out an existence amid the wreckage. “Life is difficult. May God grant us patience and strength,” she added.
Israel cut off all aid and other supplies to Gaza on Sunday to pressure Hamas to accept a new proposal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire. Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the existing ceasefire agreement, but both sides stopped short of declaring the truce over.
“We’re scared because there’s no stability,” Al-Absi said and added that she’s praying for the war to end and that she can’t bear any more losses. She spoke before Israel announced the new proposal and the aid cutoff on Sunday.
Though Ramadan is still far from normal, some in the Gaza Strip said that, in some ways, it feels better than last year’s.
“We can’t predict what will happen next,” Amal Abu Sariyah, in Gaza City, said before the month’s start. “Yes, the country is destroyed and the situation is very bad, but the feeling that the shelling and the killing ... have stopped, makes you (feel) that this year is better than the last one.”
Overshadowed by war and displacement, last Ramadan was “very bad” for the Palestinian people, she said. The 2024 Ramadan in Gaza began with ceasefire talks then at a standstill, hunger worsening across the strip and no end in sight to the war.
The war was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel in which Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. Israel’s military offensive has killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Vast areas of Gaza have been destroyed.
Under the ceasefire, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flooded back into northern Gaza. After initial relief and joy at returning to their homes — even if damaged or destroyed — they’ve been grappling with living amid the wreckage.
As Palestinians in the Gaza Strip prepared for Ramadan, shopping for essential household goods and food, some lamented harsh living conditions and economic hardships, but also said they rely on their faith in God to provide for them.
“I used to help people. ... Today, I can’t help myself,” said Nasser Shoueikh. “My situation, thank God, used to be better and I wasn’t in need for anything. ... We ask God to stand by us.”
For observant Muslims the world over, Ramadan is a time for fasting daily from dawn to sunset, increased worship, religious reflection, charity and good deeds. It often brings families and friends together in festive gatherings around meals to break their fast.
Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, Fatima Barbakh, from the southern city of Khan Younis, said her Ramadan shopping was limited to the essentials.
“We can’t buy lanterns or decorations like we do every Ramadan,” she said.
Back in Jabaliya, Al-Absi bitterly recalled how she used to break her fast with her husband, how much she misses him and how she remembers him when she prays.
“We don’t want war,” she said. “We want peace and safety.”
Loss, worry and prayers for better days mark Ramadan’s start as fragile ceasefire holds in Gaza
https://arab.news/24vkc
Loss, worry and prayers for better days mark Ramadan’s start as fragile ceasefire holds in Gaza
- For Palestinians observing Ramadan in Gaza, the Muslim holy month started this year under a fragile ceasefire agreement
Floods wreak havoc in Morocco’s farmlands after severe drought
- Morocco, where agriculture employs about a third of the working-age population, has seen seven consecutive years of drought
- We have no grain left to feed our livestock, and they are our main source of income
KENITRA, Morocco: In the Moroccan village of Ouled Salama, 63-year-old farmer Mohamed Reouani waded through his crops, now submerged by floodwaters after days of heavy downpours.
Farmers in the North African kingdom have endured severe drought for the past few years.
But floods have now swamped more than 100,000 hectares of land, wiping out key crops and forcing farmers in the country’s northwest to flee with
their livestock.
“I have about four or five hectares” of crops, Reouani said. “All of it is gone now.”
“Still, praise be to God for this blessing,” he added while looking around at the water.
Morocco, where agriculture employs about a third of the working-age population, has seen seven consecutive years of drought.
As of December, its dams were only around 30 percent full on average, and farmers have largely relied on rainwater for irrigation.
Now their average filling rate stands at nearly 70 percent after they received about 8.8 billion cubic meters of water in the last month — compared to just 9 billion over the previous two years combined.
Many like Reouani had at first rejoiced at the downpours.
But the rain eventually swelled into a heavy storm that displaced over 180,000 people as of Wednesday and killed four so far.
In his village, the water level climbed nearly 2 meters, Reouani said. Some homes still stand isolated by floodwater.
Elsewhere, residents were seen stranded on rooftops before being rescued in small boats.
Others were taken away by helicopter as roads were cut off by flooding.
Authorities have set up camps of small tents, including near the city of Kenitra, to shelter evacuees and their livestock.
“We have no grain left” to feed the animals, one evacuee, Ibrahim Bernous, 32, said at a camp. “The water
took everything.”
Bernous, like many, now depends on animal feed distributed by the authorities, according to Mustapha Ait Bella, an official at the Agriculture Ministry.
At the camps, displaced families make do with little as they wait to return home.
“The problem is what happens after we return,” said Chergui Al-Alja, 42.
“We have no grain left to feed our livestock, and they are our main source of income.”
On Thursday, the government announced a relief plan totaling about $330 million to aid the hardest-hit regions.
A tenth of that sum was earmarked for farmers and livestock breeders.
Rachid Benali, head of the Moroccan Confederation of Agriculture and Rural Development, said farming was “among the sectors most affected by
the floods.”
But he said “a more accurate damage assessment was pending once the waters receded.”
Benali added that sugar beet, citrus, and vegetable farms had also been devastated by flooding.
Agriculture accounts for about 12 percent of Morocco’s overall economy.
The International Monetary Fund anticipates that the massive rainfall will help the economy grow by nearly five percent.
Authorities are betting on expanded irrigation and seawater desalination to help the sector withstand increasingly volatile climate swings.
While Morocco is no stranger to extreme weather events, scientists say that climate change driven by human activity has made phenomena such as droughts and floods more frequent and intense.
Last December, flash floods killed 37 people in Safi, in Morocco’s deadliest weather-related disaster in the past decade.
Neighboring Algeria and Tunisia have also experienced severe weather and deadly flooding in recent weeks.
Further north, Portugal and Spain have faced fresh storms and torrential rain.
