[News] Between rubble and prayer: Gaza welcomes Ramadan

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Comments <https://english.palinfo.com/opinion_articles/>
Between rubble and prayer: Gaza welcomes Ramadan
Bashaer Abu Muammar
<https://english.palinfo.com/authors/bashaer-abu-muammar>

Sunday 8-February-2026

When mosques fall, faith remains standing. This is how Palestinians in Gaza
welcome the sacred month beneath open skies and inside fragile prayer
shelters. Ramadan in Gaza no longer lives in buildings, but in unbreakable
hearts.

Across Gaza, mosques that once stood as pillars of community life now lie
in ruins, their minarets shattered and prayer halls reduced to rubble. Yet
every collapsed mosque has given rise to a humble replacement, rebuilt by
residents using the simplest materials, nylon sheets, plastic coverings,
and scraps of wood, transforming destruction into spaces of worship.

Prayers amidst ruins

In Al-Shati Refugee Camp alone, nearly twenty makeshift prayer areas have
been established, mostly on the ruins of mosques bombarded by Israel.
Ramadan prayers and nightly Tarawih will be held this year despite the
devastation. These fragile structures may bend with the wind, but they
carry the weight of faith and resilience.

Sheikh Hasan Hania, an imam from the camp, speaks to the Palestinian
Information Center about Ramadan this year, “Ongoing bombardment,
destruction of homes and mosques, and loss have weakened people’s spiritual
well-being, yet many still await Ramadan to restore their spirits.”

As of October 2025, Israel has destroyed 835 mosques across the Gaza Strip,
according to statistics provided by the Government Media Office in the
besieged enclave.

In previous years, people would decorate their homes and places of worship,
replace mosque carpets, and gather for iftar and social visits. Ramadan was
a time of shared joy and collective celebration. Today, most people are
preoccupied with securing food and drink. The happiness and warmth that
once filled homes during this blessed month have largely faded.

“People now see Ramadan as an opportunity to reclaim their spiritual and
social lives, renewing their relationship with Allah, with themselves, and
with their neighbors and local communities. They prepare to observe prayers
in temporary prayer spaces that offer little protection from winter cold or
summer heat,” Hania added.

Faithful resilience

Hania says that people draw their strength from the oppression and
brutality of the occupation. Israel has targeted mosques, churches, homes,
and hospitals, and its crimes continue to this very moment. The occupation
has struck both churches and mosques, making this a religious war aimed at
distracting people, forcing them to focus solely on finding food. Yet all
this oppression only strengthens people’s attachment to their religion and
faith and increases their determination to gather five times a day for
prayer. This, he says, is the essence of compassion.

Families living together in displacement camps say they will set up tents
where they will pray and uphold God’s law. They perform Tarawih prayers,
Fajr prayers, and observe Ramadan rituals, even with the minimum gathering
necessary for prayer, for listening to sermons and religious lessons, and
for setting up Ramadan tents.

They also engage in the fruits of Ramadan: holding religious competitions,
striving to memorize the Quran, reciting the Quran. People encourage and
motivate one another, compete in good deeds, and today, they do their best
to pray in mosques, among mosque ruins, in temporary prayer spaces, or at
home. They aim, God willing, to keep the rituals of Ramadan alive and
present.

As an imam, Sheikh Hasan feels both pain and pride. “Though we feel the
pain of what has befallen us, we pray among the rubble, on stones and mats,
without proper facilities or sound equipment. Yet this only strengthens our
determination to rebuild our mosques, until the day comes when we can all
pray together in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

*-Bashaer Abu Muammar is a Gaza-based journalist. She contributed this
article to the Palestinian Information Center.*
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