Lanterns over rubble: Gaza marks 1st Ramadan after Israeli war with fragile hope

By Jomaa Younis
GAZA CITY, Palestine/ISTANBUL (AA) – On the rubble of what was once a six-story home in southern Gaza, colored lanterns now sway above broken concrete.

In Abu Sufyan neighborhood in Khan Younis, children climb over shattered walls and stretch wires between tents and collapsed buildings, determined to decorate their street for Ramadan, the first since a ceasefire halted Israel’s two-year war that reduced much of Gaza to ruins.

For residents here, hanging decorations is not just a seasonal ritual. It is an act of reclaiming life.

- Color against the gray

For months, ash and dust dominated the neighborhood. Now, banners reading “Ramadan Mubarak” and “Welcome, Holy Month” hang above alleyways still scarred by bombardment.

Red and yellow lights pierce the gray skyline of fractured buildings. The decorations are powered by small generators that run only a few hours each night, but that is enough.

Children run between the tents that replaced their homes, laughing and testing the lanterns that survived the war with them.

“This tradition never stopped,” said Yasser Al-Sattari, a local resident overseeing the decorations. “Even when everything else collapsed.”

Sattari lost his home, his wife, his sister and several members of his extended family during the war. Yet he insists the decorations must go up.

“We refuse to let war steal Ramadan joy from our children,” he said. “They have already lost too much.”

- A Ramadan shaped by survival

The past two Ramadans unfolded under bombardment and famine-like conditions. Families struggled to secure basic food for iftar (fasting breaking meal) and suhoor as displacement spread across the enclave.

Entire neighborhoods remain flattened. Thousands are still missing under the rubble.

Yet this Ramadan, though quieter, carries a different meaning.

“We survived,” Sattari said. “And that is why we celebrate.”

Electricity remains largely unavailable across Gaza. Israel cut power supplies at the start of the war and continues to restrict fuel entry needed to operate the enclave’s only power plant, despite the ceasefire.

According to Gaza’s government media office, more than 5,000 kilometers of electricity networks and over 2,000 transformers were destroyed during the conflict, with losses estimated at $1.4 billion.

Still, when night falls, lanterns flicker above tents and cracked facades.

The light is faint. The wires are fragile. The streets remain broken.

But in Abu Sufyan, the message is unmistakable: Ramadan will come, even if it must pass over rubble.

The US-backed ceasefire agreement has been in place in Gaza since Oct. 10, halting Israel’s two-year war that has killed more than 72,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000 others since October 2023.

Since the agreement took effect on Oct. 10, Israeli forces have committed hundreds of violations through shelling and gunfire, killing 603 Palestinians and injuring 1,618 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.