Bags of fragrant spice, dates box, frozen chicken and fresh produce. Foods and other products that were scarce during the war have returned to the shops and markets of Carrer de Gaza in time for the fasting month of Ramadan. And the Israeli bombs have silently.
But the shadow of the war hangs on what was once one of the most cheerful stations in the territory, and life in Gaza has not even begun to return to normal. Street vendors have abstained from playing the special songs that they would normally make during Ramadan, and even if there is more food in shops, many struggle to allow it.
The first phase of a cessation of the fire between Israel and Hamas lasted a month and a half, but was prepared on Saturday, which coincides with the first day of Ramadan’s fast from dawn to dusk. It could be expanded, but so far, there have been few advances to do it.
Maisa Arafa, 29, who said that her brother had been killed during the war, has lived in a tent with other relatives, as they erase the ruins of his devastated house north of Gaza in the hope of moving to a room that is still intact.
« More than anything, I wish my brother could return. This would be the only thing to make Ramadan feel as before, « said Ms. Arafa while buying in the center of Gaza City. » This is not the Ramadan we knew, not even the life we knew. «
Before the war, Ramadan was one of the most cheerful festivals in Gaza. The crowds went to the mosques, and the streets were decorated with a lanterns of colors typical of the Ramadan period.
But a huge gap extends among the happy holiday memories of a seemingly irrecoverable past and the desolation and pain left by the 15 -month war in Gaza. Many Palestinians in the territory see little to celebrate it.
Since the cessation of Israel-Hamas came into force in mid-January, hundreds of truck loads a day of food and other supplies have entered Gaza, offering a degree of relief of the intense famine that many suffered during the war. The constant bombing that stormed the lives of civilians every day has ceased more than a year.
21 -year -old Farah Irshi described how the previous Ramadan felt during the fighting between Israel and Hamas. He said there was little food and about 25 displaced people were piled up in his house in the midst of constant bombing, he said.
« There is more food now in the local market, as there seems to be more help in Gaza, but people, including us, have no money at all, » he said. « So it’s like nothing in the markets. »
Abdelhalim Awad, who oversees a bakery and a supermarket in the center of Gaza, said that prices had dropped from the worst days of the war, when a 55 -pound flour sack could cost hundreds of dollars.
Many goods, such as frozen chicken and kitchen gas, are now in shops and street markets, although others, like chocolate, are still scarce, he said. But they are still expensive and many people already burned during their savings during the war to buy Eating hard to find and expensive.
« The goods are now available, but people are still able to buy what they really need, » said Mr. Awad while seeing vacation buyers came and came, buying what they could for community meals to break the fast at night.
The war began after the assault directed by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killed about 1,200 people and saw that about 250 more took Gaza as hostages. The subsequent Israeli military campaign missed the large strips of the Gaza Strip.
Many residents are still displaced or have returned home just to find them ruined by the fighting. Some have returned to the camps for the displaced ones where they spent much of the last year, while others have launched tents in the rubble where their homes were.
The Israeli campaign killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children, according to local health officials who do not distinguish between civilians and fighters. The Israeli military said he had « eliminated » about 20,000 Hamas operators, without providing detailed tests for a backup of this statement.
This week, Gazans traveled the local markets of central and northern Gaza, looking for everything they could afford. A seller showed piles of green and black olives, dates and other products.
Muhanned Hamad, an accountant in the city of Gaza, was in front of the toy seller’s stop in what was historically an important market in the center. He said he was looking for a holiday flashlight to give his neighbors, a mother and son who had lost their immediate family during the war.
« This Ramadan is nothing like the one before, » Hamad, 39, said. « The war has drained it of meaning, » he added. « Even with the cessation of the fire, nothing here feels worth celebrating. »
Amera HarouudaContributed reports.
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