Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank welcome Ramadan with little of the usual merriment. Amid Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza and increasing violence in the West Bank, the holy month’s festive decorations and festive mood are being replaced by feelings of helplessness and despair.
“There is no joy,” said Hana Karameh, a mother of five from the city of Hebron.
Ramadan this year will be “incomplete”, he said. Usually, the night before the first fast of Ramadan begins, they would pray with their neighbors and gather for suhoor – the pre-dawn meal – while children set off fireworks.
On Sunday night, as the holy month dawned, he said, “there was none of that.”
Even before Ramadan, Ms Karameh said she found it difficult to sit down to a meal knowing that many people in Gaza were starving. “I keep asking myself, did they eat? Did they drink? ” he said.
Ms Karameh said her husband usually took their younger children to the market to buy sweets and stock up on food the night before Ramadan began. Later he would take them to the mosque to pray Taraweeh, a daily night prayer of Ramadan. But this year, he said, the family couldn’t do those things.
“There were usually seven of us at our iftar table,” she said, referring to the evening meal that breaks the fast. “But this year there will be five of us.”
Ms Karameh’s husband Jamal, 55, and daughter Baraah, 19, were arrested more than three months ago by Israeli forces and are being held in administrative detention without charge or trial. They are among more than 7,500 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem who have been detained by Israeli forces since the October 7 attacks by Hamas, according to the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited control over the West Bank.
Palestinians in the West Bank are also less likely to host lavish iftar meals this year because their economic situation has worsened over the past five months. Israeli restrictions and closures across the West Bank have hampered business since October 7.
“It’s a very different feeling compared to previous years,” said Bassam Abu al-Rub, a journalist from the West Bank city of Jenin who lives in Nablus. “I went to the supermarket and bought only basic ingredients because when we sit at the table to eat after seeing the scenes in Gaza, we feel broken.”
Escalating violence and regular Israeli raids in the West Bank have killed more than 425 people there since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah — and the toll continues to rise. The ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli forces killed two people overnight near the town of Al-Jib. The Israeli military said the raids were part of its counter-terrorism efforts against members of Hamas in the West Bank.
“Beyond the war in Gaza, the West Bank has been living a war since 2021,” Mr Abu al-Rub said, referring to the year Israeli raids, detentions and settler violence began to rise sharply in the occupied territories. “Imagine when you live this emotional state of daily incursions, sounds of gunfire and gas bombs and regular detentions,” Mr. Abu al-Rub said in a telephone interview. “Of course you will fear further escalation” during the holy month, he added.
Mr Abu al-Rub said that every year he would look forward to Israel granting him permission to visit Jerusalem and pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites. But this year, he didn’t have much hope that he would be able to go.
Al Aqsa, which sits on a site revered by Jews as the site of two ancient temples, has long been a point of contention and Israel has tightened control over it in recent years. On Monday, Israel’s agency that oversees policy on the Palestinian territories posted on Facebook that only men over 55, women over 50 and children under 10 will be allowed to enter Israel from the West Bank to pray at Al Aqsa during Ramadan.
Gabby Sobelman contributed to the report.
