NEW YORK /Gaza – UNS: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for “silencing the guns” in Gaza in honour of Ramazan which began today, AFP reports.
Guterres told reporters that Ramazan celebrates “peace, reconciliation and solidarity. Yet even though Ramazan has begun — the killing, bombing and bloodshed continue in Gaza. “
Dozens of Gazans have offered prayers on the first day of Ramazan, in the middle of the ruins of a mosque hit by an Israeli air strike just days ago.
Standing in rows before a prayer leader with their hands folded, the Palestinian men were entering a fasting month unlike any they had experienced before.
Many of those not attending prayers were out in the streets looking for whatever food they could find for their families living in makeshift camps across the war-ravaged territory.
“I wish the planes would bomb me and I die,” said Zaki Hussein Abu Mansur, once the proud owner of a house he had built for his family in Khan Younis — where Israeli forces are engaged in a sweeping ground operation against Hamas.
