Because the solar units, Saddam al-Yazji, his spouse, and their daughter sip a noodle soup, breaking their each day Ramadan quick in Gaza Metropolis. They sit round a folding desk arrange within the dust on the foot of a towering pile of rubble, twisted steel, and concrete slabs that was as soon as their house.
Buried below the particles are the our bodies of a lot of their household.
The three are just about the household’s solely survivors. Mr. Al-Yazji’s mother and father, his three brothers and his sister, together with most of their kids, and his spouse’s mother and father and siblings — 40 family in complete — had been all killed in a single strike when Israeli forces bombed the home in December 2023.
The Islamic holy month of Ramadan is historically a time for household, with giant, festive gatherings for iftar, the sundown meal that ends the each day quick. Within the Gaza Strip, it has change into a season when wartime losses hit particularly deep for the various households grieving family members killed by Israeli forces, which have been preventing Hamas for greater than two years.
“I take a look at photographs of our gatherings in Ramadan and cry,” the 35-year-old Mr. al-Yazji mentioned. “The place is my household? All are worn out.” “It is the third Ramadan with out them.” The household as soon as had giant Ramadan meals. Throughout Ramadans earlier than the conflict, Mr. al-Yazji’s father, Kamel al-Yazji, introduced all his kids and grandchildren collectively for iftar round a big desk piled with meat and rice and different dishes, recalled Saddam’s spouse, Heba al-Yazji.
Ramadan, when Muslims quick from daybreak to nightfall, is a month devoted to spiritual reflection and worship. It additionally builds neighborhood, with the giving of charity.
The elder Mr. Kamel al-Yazji was a former choose with the Palestinian Authority and a widely known sports activities determine in Gaza, serving as chairman of the Palestinian Athletics Federation. Mr. Saddam al-Yazji earned a residing operating a grocery store on the bottom flooring of the four-story household house in Gaza Metropolis’s Rimal neighborhood.
The airstrike got here just a few months into the ferocious Israeli bombardment that was launched after the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel in October 2023. The home was leveled on high of everybody inside.
“We had been in the identical home, in one other a part of the home,” Mr. Saddam al-Yazji mentioned. “We survived miraculously.” The one different survivors had been the daughter and the pregnant spouse of considered one of his brothers. Among the many lifeless had been 22 kids.
Among the our bodies had been retrieved on the time. One in every of Mr. al-Yazji’s brothers is buried in a grave marked with sticks on the foot of the destroyed home. Round 20 family stay buried below the rubble.
After the strike, the couple and their daughter, 11-year-old Maryam, lived in a tent elsewhere in Gaza Metropolis for a lot of the conflict. In the course of the earlier two Ramadans, they tried as a lot as potential to come back go to the rubble of their house and have iftar there.
When a ceasefire deal got here into impact in October, the three moved to a tent subsequent to their outdated house.
“Life is empty,” Ms. Heba al-Yazji mentioned. “The conflict took all the things from me. We want we had died with them somewhat than stay alone.” Most households really feel a loss. All through the conflict, Israel has struck houses and tent camps sheltering Palestinians, usually killing giant numbers of households without delay. Israel says it targets Hamas militants, although it hardly ever says who had been the particular targets.
Israel’s marketing campaign has killed greater than 72,000 folks, almost half of them ladies and youngsters, in accordance with the Gaza Well being Ministry. The Ministry, which is a part of the Hamas-led authorities, maintains detailed casualty information seen as typically dependable by U.N. companies and unbiased consultants, although it doesn’t give a breakdown of civilians and militants.
Round 8,000 extra are nonetheless buried below the rubble of destroyed houses, in accordance with the Ministry. Retrieving most of these our bodies was out of the query when airstrikes and floor assaults had been raging. Below the ceasefire, restoration efforts have elevated, although they’re nonetheless hampered by an absence of heavy gear.
The Israeli marketing campaign was triggered by the Hamas assault that killed some 1,200 folks in Israel and took greater than 250 others hostage. The hostages have been launched, principally as a part of ceasefire agreements.
Nearly everybody in Gaza has misplaced at the very least prolonged members of the family. Almost your complete inhabitants of two.1 million is homeless, with most residing in huge tent camps. Greater than 80% of the strip’s buildings have been broken or destroyed.
A panorama of rubble that was as soon as the Rimal district prolonged throughout the small Ramadan desk the place the three surviving al-Yazjis ate their meal.
Mr. Saddam al-Yazji recalled the “nice eating desk” of his household’s previous Ramadan gatherings and the way all of them seemed ahead to it yearly. “I really feel like I’ve betrayed them by being alive,” he mentioned.
Printed – February 28, 2026 12:06 pm IST