Post reporters spent the first week of Ramadan with Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank documenting how grief has darkened this year’s observances.
People pray in a square outside Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque on March 15, the first Friday of Ramadan. The war in Gaza has cast a pall over the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a time of fasting and reflection, charity and community.
During Ramadan, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians typically gather at the site, from where they believe the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. Khawla Marizi, 62, had traveled from Hebron to be there. Extra screening measures made the bus ride — an hour and a half long on a good day — take four hours, she said.
But the scene was relatively muted compared with most years, vendors said. The owner of a tea shop estimated that foot traffic was down 85 percent this Ramadan – largely because of tightened Israeli restrictions on movement.On Tuesday, March 12, celebrations in Jerusalem were marred by the killing of a 12-year-old boy by Israeli border police in the Shuafat refugee camp, on the city’s edge.
His father, Ali Hamdan al-Halhouli, 61, heard the shot from his house and ran to the boy. An ambulance took him to a Jerusalem hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Israeli authorities held on to Ramy’s body for nearly a week before releasing it to the family for burial in the pre-dawn darkness on Monday.
Fewer customers are coming to Ahmad Misheh’s shop on Balata’s main road to buy luqma, a special Ramadan pastry, Misheh said. But the absence he feels more acutely is that of his 21-year-old son Mustafa, whose fast fingers expertly rolled the balls of dough in years past. Israeli military raids here have become more frequent and violent since Oct. 7, families say. Mothers stay awake at night, fearing that their sons will be arrested or killed.
“There is no taste for anything without Mohammad. He was my oldest son,” his father, Juma, 72, said as he broke his fast on Wednesday evening last week, surrounded by his younger children and grandchildren. “There is no joy, no happiness."This Ramadan is the first that Fares Samamreh, a Palestinian farmer and father of 18, has spent away from the land that he worked all his life.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Israel Deploys 15,000 Troops in West Bank and Jerusalem as Ramadan BeginsCeasefire talks falter as Israel continues its campaign of starvation in Gaza and escalates repression in the West Bank.
Read more »
Stabbing near Jerusalem after deadly violence erupts in the occupied West BankViolent clashes overnight have left multiple Palestinians dead in the West Bank, and Israeli police say a Palestinian stabbed two people at a checkpoint near Jerusalem before being shot Wednesday
Read more »
Stabbing near Jerusalem after deadly violence erupts in the occupied West BankViolent clashes overnight have left multiple Palestinians dead in the West Bank, and Israeli police say a Palestinian stabbed two people at a checkpoint near Jerusalem before being shot Wednesday.
Read more »
Israel deploys more police to occupied East Jerusalem on the eve of RamadanIn Palestine, the typical festive atmosphere is shattered by the latest Israeli police deployment around the Al Aqsa Mosque and in the occupied West Bank amid starvation and massacres in Gaza.
Read more »
At Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque, Ramadan brings uncertainty and fearEven in quieter years, al-Aqsa is a Ramadan tinderbox. Clashes here have been a repeated flash point for war.
Read more »
On eve of Ramadan, Jerusalem’s Old City offers little festivity as Gaza war ragesOn the eve of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Jerusalem’s Old City bears few of its usual hallmarks of festivity.
Read more »