GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: As the sun sets, Saddam Al-Yazji, his wife and their daughter sip a noodle soup, breaking their daily Ramadan fast in Gaza City. They sit around a folding table set up in the dirt at the foot of a towering pile of rubble, twisted metal and concrete slabs that was once their home.
Buried under the debris are the bodies of much of their family.
The three are virtually the family’s only survivors. Al-Yazji’s parents, his three brothers and his sister, along with most of their children, and his wife’s parents and siblings — 40 relatives in total — were all killed in a single strike when Israeli forces bombed the house in December 2023.
The Islamic holy month of Ramadan is traditionally a time for family, with large, festive gatherings for iftar, the sunset meal that ends the daily fast. In the Gaza Strip, it has become a season when wartime losses hit especially deep for the many families grieving loved ones killed by Israeli forces, which have been fighting Hamas for more than two years.
“I look at photos of our gatherings in Ramadan and cry,” the 35-year-old Al-Yazji said. “Where is my family? All are wiped out.”
