Gaza welcomes the holy month in a garment of patience and will Gaza’s markets speak of the strength of a resilient people who choose life

This year, Gaza welcomes the holy month of Ramadan weighed down by a heavy pain that is evident on faces and in alleyways alike. A city exhausted by siege and the accumulation of crises, where the simplest details of daily life have turned into a constant struggle for survival. Yet, despite all this, it continues to search for a small window of light amid this long darkness.

In homes that have lost loved ones, and around tables where patience is mixed with whatever little is available, people in Gaza experience Ramadan with a different taste — a taste that is inseparable from grief and from the painful memory of loss. Here, supplication becomes more present, and silence turns into a shared language among hearts worn down by heavy news and the fatigue of waiting.

Harsh humanitarian conditions, scarce resources, and anxiety about tomorrow have not diminished people’s need for life — they have only made it more urgent. Amid tight living conditions, families strive to preserve the spirit of the holy month and pass on the values of compassion and solidarity to their children, as if they are protecting what remains of childhood and a sense of safety in a cruel time.

Accumulated pain

Despite the accumulated pain, Gaza continues to create much out of very little, to turn patience into strength, and faith into the energy to endure. In weary streets and exhausted homes, people go on arranging their days to the rhythm of Ramadan, quietly declaring that life cannot be postponed and that hope does not fall, no matter how intense the pain becomes.

In Gaza, the month of fasting turns into an open humanitarian message to the world — a message that patience is not weakness, and that willpower can be born from the heart of suffering. Between grief and heavy memories, the city adorns itself in a Ramadan spirit that refuses to be broken, offering a truthful image of a people who cling to life, resist harshness with hope, and turn every new day into a lesson in resilience.