A Ramadan Famine in Gaza

While 1.8 million Muslims around the world will be fasting, 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza will be starving. Or, at minimum, 65% of that population standing at the intersection of ethnic cleansing, famine, and Ramadan will face hunger as a matter of genocidal design, not religious conviction.  

For the vast majority of Muslims outside of Gaza, fasting for Ramadan is a choice. For those trapped within its bloody walls, fasting is a deadly imposition.

100% of Palestinians in Gaza face a heightened degree of food insecurity, with 60% gripped by full-fledged famine. Famine is worst in the north of Gaza, as articulated by Zeena Aqel, where 300,000 people are barely clenching onto life amid grey rubble and rumbling stomachs.

This is Ramadan in Gaza.

A season of starvation crossed with genocide, colored by the apocalyptic strokes of shattered mosques and the ongoing strikes of Israeli jets.

While Muslims globally will begin the traditional annual fast on Sunday, March 10^th, a mounting number of Palestinians in Khan Younis, Rafah, and emaciated Gazan villages beyond and in between began fasting well before that date.  These fasts were not Islamic, but wholly sacrilege, inflicted by an Israeli war machine that plotted a famine as part of its broader ethnic cleansing project.

It did so in a series of sinister steps, or unholy pillars of “starve and slay” that began on October 8^th and continue into the Holy Month of Ramadan.

The first was to destroy bakeries and centers of food production. By strategically destroying these spaces, Israel aborted Gaza’s capacity to create its own food supply from within.  This made Gaza, and its millions of besieged residents, entirely reliant on external aid.

Next, Israel wields total control over Gaza’s water supply. Starvation is exacerbated by denying access to clean water, which Israel turned up by turning off two and up to three of the water pipelines that pump drinking water into the Strip. With no clean water coming in, desperate Gazans turned to contaminated sources to drink, cook, and clean themselves during the thick of the genocide. This not only fed and fueled the deliberate famine campaign, but also killed children and adults denied the very lifeline of life. 

Third, and perhaps most nefarious, Israel conspired with the United States to stigmatize the United Nations and Reliefs Works Association (UNRWA) – the primary organization tasked with providing emergency aid to Gaza. It did so, strategically, after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rendered its “historic decision” on January 26^th, as an attempt to distract global attention form the ruling.  By tying UNRWA to October 7^th, and charges of terrorism, the principal pipeline for food provision was not only cut off, but legally criminalized.  This was unprecedented, given UNRWA’s attachment to the UN and western roots. Yet, it marked a central and sinister plot to push foreign governments to divest billions of emergency aid funding to Gaza, and in turn, devolve starvation into a proliferating famine across a strip of land that became a food desert. Even more, tying UNRWA to terrorism enabled Israel to bomb their buildings and food stockpiles within the Strip, resulting in 155 installations destroyed by airstrikes and ground attack.

The criminalization of UNRWA enabled the next and fourth step of its genocidal famine campaign: Israel’s complete border closure to foreign aid. By conflating UNRWA with Hamas, and thus, terrorism, Netanyahu ratcheted up the starvation project by restricting the entry of all foreign aid into Israel. Whether from charitable sources, churches or mosques, governments, or humanitarian groups, foreign food aid was denied entry by sea, land, or air. As a result, stockpiles of food spoiled as it awaited beyond the borders of Gaza, while within it, legions of starving people were being weakened as bombs fall from the sky and famine rose from the ground.

Fifth, and circling back to Ramadan, the Netanyahu regime is conscious that its famine campaign will bleed into the Holy Month. In fact, Israel bombs Gaza virtually every year as if it were some diabolical tradition, desecrating Ramadan for Palestinians but also Muslims globally. This year is far more pernicious, with at least 144 mosques flattened and razed inside of Gaza. By destroying almost every center of Islamic life in Gaza, the Israeli regime sought to emaciate the spiritual lives of Palestinian Muslims in Gaza as it starved their bodies from good.

This was their plan. But as the cliché goes – man plans, and Allah laughs.

This opposite took place. In a sublime stroke of faith, Palestinians prayed alongside and inside destroyed mosques, convening in unprecedented numbers – while starving – to pray on Friday services across the Strip. 

The images were as stunning as they were inspiring, foreshadowing that the genocidal conspiracy to starve Gaza physically would not eat into them spiritually.

This brings us to Ramadan, when the genocide will intrude upon the Holy Month, and remind us that our fasts are not like the fasts of the people in Gaza.

Our fasts will end with bountiful tables of food, water, and more importantly, safety.

Gaza’s fasts began with no food, will end with scarce crumbs, and remain encircled by genocide.

“We fast because we have no food,” shared Mohammed, a friend on Instagram, “and will fast on Ramadan because we will have no food still.”

During these 30 dies of Ramadan, let us always be conscious of the rolling 155 days of genocide in Gaza, and push our bodies and minds to do everything we can to alleviate the starvation and struggle of our people in Gaza.

Breaking one’s fast should not include bodies broken by famine. That is the aim of this ungodly genocide, which intersects with the beauty Holy Month.

Khaled A. Beydoun is a law professor and author. He publishes his daily insights on social media at @khaledbeydoun.