GAZA STRIP (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – The first day of Ramazan on Monday arrived like others for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza: stalked by famine and disease, shivering in tents and threatened by bombs more than five months into fighting between Israel and Hamas militants.
As the Muslim world welcomed the holy month and its customary daytime fast, many Gazans faced bombardment that saw residents once more search through the rubble of destroyed homes for survivors and bodies.
A UN report, citing the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said 25 people have now died from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children. The United Nations said "the alarming lack of food, water and health services" is accelerating the crisis "at an unprecedented pace".
Gazans are feeling the shortages even more during Ramazan.
"We don't know what we are going to eat to break the fast," Zaki Abu Mansour, 63, said inside his tent. "I have only a tomato and a cucumber... and I have no money to buy anything."
Goods that are available are sold at exorbitant prices, residents say.
Fighting raged across Gaza, even as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for "silencing the guns" during the Muslim holy month and said he was "appalled and outraged that conflict is continuing".
Guterres also appealed for removal of "all obstacles" to aid delivery.
ISRAELI SCREENING
With aid entering Gaza by truck far below pre-war levels, and Gazans increasingly desperate, foreign governments have turned to airdrops and are now trying to operate a maritime aid corridor.
Jose Andres said his American charity World Central Kitchen and its partner Open Arms are "ready to sail for Gaza" from Cyprus with food aid on the new maritime corridor which the European Union had hoped could open last Sunday.
"There have been many statements made about the maritime corridor being open, and the timeline," Andres said on social media platform X. "WCK never announced departure dates."
A senior US administration official has said the Cyprus initiative provides a platform at the port of Larnaca for "screening by Israeli officials of Gaza-bound goods".
Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said "this is an initiative, the complexity of which requires both due care and attention so that the ship can depart and the cargo can safely reach the civilian population of Gaza".
Israel's cumbersome screenings are a major reason current shortages are so glaring, aid workers say.
Israel, however, blames problems on the Palestinian side, saying the "ability of humanitarian organisations within the Gaza Strip to absorb the aid" dictates how much of it is let in.
The Israeli military said troops killed 15 militants "in close encounters, sniper fire and air strikes" over the previous day, while witnesses reported violent clashes in several areas.
Hamas authorities reported at least 67 people killed since Sunday, with more than 40 air strikes across the territory.
MEAGRE DECORATIONS
Hamas's October 7 attack that started the war resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also took around 250 hostages, dozens of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes 99 hostages still in Gaza remain alive and 31 have died.
Israel's retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive has killed 31,112 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
The United States and other countries again airdropped aid into northern Gaza on Monday, but outgoing Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said it could be delivered more efficiently via five land borders.
Humanitarian workers have made similar comments.
Weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators failed to bring about a truce and hostage exchange deal ahead of Ramazan.
While many Palestinians did not know where to find their next meal, others still found ways to celebrate the start of the holy month, fashioning meagre decorations and distributing traditional lanterns between their tents.
In Rafah, dozens of Gazans offered prayers on Ramazan's first day in the ruins of a mosque hit by an Israeli air strike just days ago.
Tens of thousands of worshippers are drawn every Ramazan to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem -- Islam's third holiest site and the most sacred for Jews.
The site has been a flashpoint of tensions in the past and is again a focus.
A SEA OF TENTS
In Washington, President Joe Biden, facing domestic criticism in an election year for his steadfast support of Israel, said this year's Ramazan "comes at a moment of immense pain".
As Muslims around the world gather to break their fast, "the suffering of the Palestinian people will be front of mind for many. It is front of mind for me."
The United States provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, and Biden's administration has given short shrift to activist calls to cut such funding.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure from desperate families of hostages still held in Gaza as well as critics of his government, a coalition including religious and ultra-nationalist parties.
In an interview with Politico, he reiterated his intention to send troops into Rafah to root out Hamas in Gaza's southernmost tip where around 1.5 million people -- most of Gaza's population -- have tried to find refuge.
"We'll go there," he said. "You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is? That October 7 doesn't happen again."
Many of the displaced in Rafah are sheltered in a sea of mostly white makeshift tents. Inland from the coast, they are crowded together, with just enough room for a miniature Ferris wheel spinning with children.