The Israeli bombing caused the demolition of hundreds of mosques in the Gaza Strip, making many Palestinians search for places that allow them to pray together during the month of Ramadan, amid water and electricity cuts and the continuation of the Israeli military invasion.
The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in Gaza told CNN, “At least 1,000 of 1,200 mosques, including ancient sites, have been partially or completely destroyed as of February.”
The ministry also indicated that “the Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 have killed more than 100 preachers”.
The CNN report pointed out that the difficulty of access to water makes it difficult for many to perform ablution before prayer. He added, quoting residents, that they cannot find enough space to perform Tarawih prayers at night, due to the destruction that occurred in places of worship.
Citizens confirmed to the American news network their determination to perform daily religious rituals. A displaced health worker in Rafah, Muhammad Hamouda, said: “We are praying next to the mosques that have been destroyed. We say ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is greatest) when we are digging the displaced people out from under the rubble.”
He continued: “These are the basics of our faith; prayers, and helping others, and doing our best.”
For its part, Yemeni news agency Saba Net reported on Wednesday that “On the first night of the blessed month of Ramadan, about 500 worshipers were able to perform Tarawih prayers in Al-Awda Mosque, which is the largest in Rafah, while about 100 others prayed near the destroyed Al-Huda Mosque in Al-Shaboura.”
The Yemeni agency added: “Water and dates were not distributed to them as usual, and lighting was not performed, Ramadan lantern due to the power outage, and worshipers relied on their phones in the midst of darkness.”
Next to the rubble of Al-Farouq Mosque in the Rafah camp, which was targeted by an Israeli raid two weeks ago, volunteers laid out mats on Monday in preparation for Tarawih prayers.
The Yemeni news agency quoted the Ministry of Endowments in the Gaza Strip as saying, “Hundreds of thousands of worshippers will not be able to perform these prayers in the mosques of the Gaza Strip, after hundreds of them became rubble and piles of destruction or were damaged by the bombing of the Zionist enemy.”
International aid, which Israel supervises the transfer of, only enters in very small quantities into the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations warns that 2.2 million people out of its 2.4 million population are threatened by famine, according to the United Nations Meeting Coverage and Press Service.
1.7 million residents were displaced due to the Israeli military invasion of Gaza, and the majority of them are gathered in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, which is threatened by a ground invasion that Israel is preparing.
The situation is becoming more dangerous in the northern Gaza Strip, where, according to the United Nations, delivering aid to about 300,000 people has become almost impossible, in light of the looting, fighting, and destruction.
Israeli military invaded the Gaza Strip following the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the killing of about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, including women and children, according to the Israeli authorities.
In response to the attack, Israel pledged to “eliminate the movement,” and has since carried out a brutal bombing campaign followed by a ground invasion since October 27, killing more than 31,000 innocent civilians, the majority of whom are children and women, and wounding more than 72,000, according to what the Ministry of Health announced in Gaza strip.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman, Majed Al-Ansari, said that negotiation efforts to reach a truce in Gaza are “continuing and intensifying” by the month of Ramadan, with the aim of reaching an agreement.
Al-Ansari added, during a press conference on Wednesday, that “Qatar is working to establish a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, rather than a short-term truce of a few days,” adding: “We are not near a Gaza ceasefire deal but remain hopeful.”
Al-Ansari continued: “We are counting on the role of the United States in pressuring Israel in the negotiations,” noting that Qatar “does not exert any kind of pressure as a mediator in these negotiations.”
The same spokesman stated that his country, along with other countries, will finance the entry of aid through the American port to be established into the Gaza Strip, but he indicated that it does not consider it a “meaningful substitute to the many land routes and entry points from Israel into Gaza. The land routes from Egypt, Rafah in particular, and Jordan also remain essential to the overall humanitarian effort.”
The Qatari official’s comments come in the wake of a meeting between the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, with Barbara Leaf, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, who is visiting Qatar.
During the meeting, the close strategic relations between the State of Qatar and the United States were reviewed, and the latest developments in the situation in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian territories were discussed.
