Quake-hit Syrians Brace for Subdued Ramadan

File photo: Syrian refugee Ayesha al-Abed, 21, right, prepares food as her Husband Raed Mattar, 24, left, plays with their daughter Rayan, 18 months old, before they break their fast on the first day of fasting month of Ramadan, at an informal refugee camp, in the town of Bhannine in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
File photo: Syrian refugee Ayesha al-Abed, 21, right, prepares food as her Husband Raed Mattar, 24, left, plays with their daughter Rayan, 18 months old, before they break their fast on the first day of fasting month of Ramadan, at an informal refugee camp, in the town of Bhannine in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
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Quake-hit Syrians Brace for Subdued Ramadan

File photo: Syrian refugee Ayesha al-Abed, 21, right, prepares food as her Husband Raed Mattar, 24, left, plays with their daughter Rayan, 18 months old, before they break their fast on the first day of fasting month of Ramadan, at an informal refugee camp, in the town of Bhannine in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
File photo: Syrian refugee Ayesha al-Abed, 21, right, prepares food as her Husband Raed Mattar, 24, left, plays with their daughter Rayan, 18 months old, before they break their fast on the first day of fasting month of Ramadan, at an informal refugee camp, in the town of Bhannine in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Umm Esmat, a mother living in war-torn Syria, is preparing for the onset of Ramadan this year with a heavy heart, after a deadly earthquake forced her from her home.

Now displaced in the rebel-held countryside of northern Syria, she places on the bare ground of her shelter a few bags of bulgur, dates, rice and sweets for breaking the fast during the Muslim holy month which begins on Thursday, AFP said.

"Ramadan this year will not be like the year before, or the year before that," she said with a sigh, sitting in a desolate tent near her house, furnished only with mattresses and a heater.

The walls of her home either collapsed or cracked in the powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck on February 6, killing nearly 6,000 people in Syria and tens of thousands more in neighboring Türkiye.

The disaster heaped more misery on the people of northwestern Syria who have been battered by 12 years of war.

The conflict, which erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of peaceful protests, cost the lives of more than 500,000 people and uprooted around half of the country's pre-war population from their homes.

At a nearby camp in the heavily quake-damaged town of Jindayris, Hilal Safarjali sells chocolate bars, biscuits and sweets from a makeshift stall to get by after he lost his home.

"I cannot say happy Ramadan. We are not OK after the earthquake," said the man in his 50s, displaced from Damascus.

The United Nations warned last week that Syria faced "unprecedented levels of poverty and food insecurity".

Yet funding gaps could force the World Food Program to stop providing assistance to nearly four million Syrians by summer unless more donations come in, the UN agency has said.

Safarjali's neighbor Umm Jumaa said she was still mourning her husband who was killed in the tremor.

"This Ramadan without my husband will be very difficult," she said with tears in her eyes.

"We lost him, and he was the head of the household."

The daytime fasting month of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam.

Observant Muslims refrain from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk. They traditionally gather with family and friends to break their fast in the evening.



Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill 10 People, Mostly Women and Children

Palestinians carry the bodies of those who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike, during their funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry the bodies of those who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike, during their funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill 10 People, Mostly Women and Children

Palestinians carry the bodies of those who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike, during their funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry the bodies of those who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike, during their funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Israeli strikes overnight and into Sunday killed 10 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, according to local health officials.
Two of the strikes hit tents in the southern city of Khan Younis, each killing two children and their parents. Other strikes killed a child and a man riding a bicycle, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies from all the strikes.
Israel has sealed Gaza off from all imports, including food, medicine and emergency shelter, for over 10 weeks in what it says is a pressure tactic aimed at forcing Hamas to release hostages. Israel resumed its offensive in March, shattering a ceasefire that had facilitated the release of more than 30 hostages.
Aid groups say food supplies are running low and hunger is widespread.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 52,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The offensive has destroyed vast areas of the territory and displaced some 90% of its population of around 2 million.