Ramadan prayers in Gaza

After performing afternoon prayers seated in his bed at the orthopedics department of the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis, 28-year-old Mohamed Abu Teilakh reads the Quran until the sunset call to prayer, marking the time to break his Ramadan fast. As he reads and prays, Mohamed wishes for the war to end and the ability to travel for the surgery he needs. Mohamed’s right leg was injured when his home was bombed in an Israeli airstrike in October.

Mohamed remains committed to his Quran recitations day and night as part of his Ramadan worship, a commitment shared by observing Palestinians throughout Gaza, whether in their places of medical treatment, displacement shelters, the ruins of bombed mosques, or in mosques still untouched by Israeli missiles, amid ongoing strikes, death and destruction. In Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, Occupation forces have destroyed all but the minaret of the Farouq Mosque, and people in the area instead hold prayers in a large nylon tent constructed beside its remains.

In Rafah’s Yibna camp, an airstrike on the Huda Mosque has not stopped worshippers from holding evening Ramadan prayers upon the ruins, which they have repaired with limited means. During these prayers, worshippers raise their palms to the heavens, repeating “Amen” after the imam, as he prays for God to come to the aid of the people of Gaza, have mercy on the martyrs, heal the wounded, release Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons, and liberate all Palestinian territories from Israeli occupation.