Palestinians in Gaza begin Ramadan with hunger worsening and no end in sight

Palestinians began fasting for Ramadan on Monday as the Muslim holy month arrived with ceasefire talks at a standstill, hunger worsening across the Gaza Strip and no end in sight to the five-month-old war between Israel and Hamas.

Prayers were held outside amid the rubble of demolished buildings late on Sunday. Some people hung fairy lights and decorations in packed tent camps, and a video from a UN-school-turned-shelter showed children dancing and spraying foam as a man sang through a loudspeaker.

But there was little to celebrate after five months of war that has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians and left much of Gaza in ruins.

Families would ordinarily break the daily fast with holiday feasts, but even where food is available, there is little beyond canned goods and the prices are too high for many.

“You don’t see anyone with joy in their eyes,” said Sabah al-Hendi, who was shopping for food on Sunday in the city of Rafah. “Every family is sad. Every family has a martyr.”

The US, Qatar and Egypt had aimed to broker a ceasefire ahead of the normally joyous month of dawn-to-dusk fasting – with hopes for the release of dozens of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and the entry of a large amount of humanitarian aid – but the talks stalled last week.

Hamas is demanding guarantees that any agreement will lead to an end to the war, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive until “total victory” against the militant group and the release of all remaining hostages.

Mr Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel had killed “Hamas’s number four” leader and added that more targeted killings were to come.

“Three, two, and one are on the way. They are all dead men. We will reach them all,” he said.

Mr Netanyahu was probably referencing the assassination of Saleh Arouri, the deputy political head of Hamas and a founder of the group’s military wing, who was killed in a blast in Beirut in January. Israel was widely believed to be behind the blast.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres urged Israel and Hamas to honour the spirit of Ramadan by “silencing the guns” and releasing all the hostages.

“The eyes of the world are watching. The eyes of history are watching. We cannot look away,” he said. “We must act to avoid more preventable deaths… Desperate civilians need action – immediate action.”

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Hamas is still believed to be holding around 100 captives and the remains of 30 others after an exchange last year.

The war has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people from their homes and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine. Health officials say at least 20 people, mostly children, have died from malnutrition and dehydration in northern Gaza.

Israeli forces have largely sealed off the north since October, and aid groups say Israeli restrictions, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of law and order have made it nearly impossible to safely deliver desperately needed food in much of the territory.

Israel has vowed to expand its offensive to the southern city of Rafah, where half of Gaza’s population has sought refuge, without saying where civilians would go to escape the onslaught.

US President Joe Biden has said an attack on Rafah would be a “red line” for him, but that Washington would continue to provide military aid to Israel.

He acknowledged in his annual Ramadan message that the holy month comes “at a moment of intense pain”.

“As Muslims gather around the world over the coming days and weeks to break their fast, the suffering of the Palestinian people will be front of mind for many. It is front of mind for me,” he said.

The US and other countries have begun airdropping aid in recent days, but humanitarian groups say such efforts are costly and insufficient.

The US military has also begun transporting equipment to build a sea bridge to deliver aid, but it is likely to be several weeks before it is operational.

A ship belonging to Spanish aid group Open Arms carrying 200 tons of food aid was expected to make a pilot voyage to Gaza from nearby Cyprus, though it was not clear when it would depart.

Israel says it welcomes the sea deliveries and will inspect Gaza-bound cargo before it leaves Cyprus. The ship is expected to take two to three days to arrive at an undisclosed location in Gaza.

The food is being supplied by the World Central Kitchen, a US charity founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres, which said construction work on a jetty in Gaza began on Sunday. Once the ship reaches Gaza, aid will be offloaded by a crane, placed on trucks and driven north.

The US has provided crucial military support to Israel and shielded it from international calls for a ceasefire while urging it to do more to avoid harming civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 31,112 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, including 67 bodies taken to hospital in the past 24 hours. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

Israel blames the civilian death toll on Hamas because the militants fight in dense, residential areas and position fighters, tunnels and rocket launchers near homes, schools and mosques. The military says it has killed 13,000 Hamas fighters.

Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes late Monday near Lebanon’s north-eastern city of Baalbek wounded at least six people, a Hezbollah official said.

The official said the locations of the air strikes, the deepest in Lebanon since February 26, have not yet been specified.

In late February, Israeli air strikes near the historic city of Baalbek killed two Hezbollah members.

The state-run National News Agency said one of the strikes hit a building in the village of Ansar just south of Baalbek. It gave no word on casualties.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV reported at least two air strikes, with one striking a building on the outskirts of the village of Taraya and another near Baalbek on the outskirts of Ansar.

Israel’s military and Hezbollah fighters have been trading fire since the Israel-Hamas was began on October 7. More than 220 Hezbollah fighters and nearly 40 civilians were killed on the Lebanese side, while in Israel, nine soldiers and 10 civilians were left dead in the attacks.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border.