AMMAN, Jordan (RNS) — Before sunset on Monday (March 17), Hiyam Issa Karsou spread a black plastic tablecloth on the floor of her home in Gaza City. The psychologist and mother of four set out the iftar meal she had prepared: bowls of white beans cooked in tomato sauce and a tray of rice, accompanied by pickles and dates. It was the end of the 17th day of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting.
Several hours later, about an hour before Hiyam’s family planned to eat suhoor, the early morning meal consumed before fasting resumes, they woke to the sound of rockets, followed by screams of women and children and the rumble of concrete buildings collapsing.
“The intensity of the explosions … made us realize that the war had returned,” Hiyam said. “It was a blood-soaked suhoor.”
By Tuesday afternoon, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry reported more than 400 Palestinians dead and 562 injured in the surprise assault. Israel claimed that the strikes killed the de facto head of Hamas’ government, Essam Al-Daalis, among other leaders.
“From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing force,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a televised speech on Tuesday night. “And from now on, negotiations will only take place under fire.”
The bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli army airstrikes are brought to Shifa hospital in Gaza City, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The fresh offensive destroyed the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that began on Jan. 19. Since then, Hamas had released 33 Israeli hostages, including the bodies of eight dead, while Israel released close to 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, some serving life sentences and others held without charge or sentence. Of the 59 hostages who remain in Gaza, fewer than half are thought to be alive. Hamas kidnapped more than 250 Israelis in its raid on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which also killed more than 1,200.
The Israeli military assault, which Israeli media say was given a “green light” by the Trump administration, was not limited to Gaza City. Hiyam’s sister Maryam Issa Karsou awoke to the sound of bombing near her home in Hamad, near the southern city of Khan Younis, where she lives with her husband and three children. Two apartments on their street were shelled, she said.
“We still haven’t been able to catch up and breathe,” said Maryam, who before the war ran a sports academy for children.
Phase one of the ceasefire ended on March 1, the first day of Ramadan. According to the agreement signed on Jan. 15, phase two would involve complete withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces from Gaza and a permanent end to the war in exchange for the release of the remaining living hostages.
The U.S. Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, recently proposed an extension of phase one that would last through the Ramadan and Passover holidays. Israel says the new campaign is its response to Hamas’ rejection of this proposal. On Thursday, Hamas responded by firing rockets at Tel Aviv.
Before Tuesday, Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians were observing Ramadan in relative quiet — even though Israel cut off humanitarian aid on March 2 in an attempt to pressure Hamas into accepting revisions to the ceasefire agreement. In Gaza City’s markets, Hiyam said, vegetables and fruits are expensive and meat is extremely scarce, but she’s able to purchase basic necessities such as canned goods, flour and dates.
Last year, at the height of northern Gaza’s famine, even these were absent. Hiyam’s family ate bread baked with flour made from chicken scratch. They scavenged for wild greens to add nutrients to their diet. During Ramadan, Hiyam said, Gazans encouraged one another with the example of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions, who sometimes broke their fast with only dates.
“Whether we fasted or ate, there wasn’t food available,” she said.
Before the IDF began to siege Gaza City in November 2023, Israel ordered Palestinian civilians to evacuate south. Hiyam refused — though her third-floor home had already been damaged twice by shelling. She wanted stability more than promised safety, so her family repaired their home’s cracked concrete walls and the metal roof that had blown off with a bomb’s impact.
Hiyam, who has lived through four wars between Hamas and Israel, remembers Ramadan in times of peace: a month of quiet and mental rest, punctuated by gatherings of family and loved ones. After breaking their fast and praying tarawih, a special Ramadan prayer said after regular evening prayer, women prepared coffee and the sweet dumplings called qatayif for visitors. Kids lit fireworks and played games together in the street while young people went out for ice cream.
“The thing that’s shared between last year’s Ramadan and this year’s is the lack of every family member gathered around the same table,” Hiyam said. “In every family, there’s someone who died, someone’s who’s missing.”
The Karsou family lost a sister-in-law, niece and 5-month-old nephew last year, when they were killed by a bomb while sleeping in a shelter for displaced Palestinians. Grief was heavy when Hiyam’s brother and his two remaining children broke the fast with her family this year.
In the south, Maryam said, residents did not experience severe hunger until a couple of months before the ceasefire took effect. What was really difficult for Maryam was purchasing diapers for her daughter, born when her family was displaced last Ramadan. One diaper could cost 10 shekels (about $2.70).
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians is set up next to destroyed buildings after the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Since the ceasefire began, markets in Hamad have reopened, though many operate on the street since the shops are reduced to rubble. Traditional foods such as falafel, hummus and foul are available, cooked over wood fires since cooking gas is scarce. Maryam said every group of residential buildings in her area has its own charitable food distribution center.
“The charity is there because, with the economic situation, the rich and poor — everyone — takes a cooked meal from it every day,” she said.
Maryam brings these meals — often lentils, beans or peas with rice — to her family in their damaged home. Though they were displaced several times after Oct. 7, 2023, as far south as Tel As-Sultan in Rafah, they returned to Hamad when the IDF declared it a humanitarian safe zone. The walls of their living room are completely blown out, overlooking a neighborhood of tents.
Maryam is not the only Palestinian who voluntarily returned to her ruined home. When U.S. President Donald Trump proposed relocating Gaza’s population in order to rebuild the Strip, Maryam said some Gazans who had hoped to emigrate changed their minds.
“Who is he to throw us out?” she said. “They kicked out the Native Americans, but they won’t be able to expel us because this is our land.”
As they approach the last 10 days of Ramadan, traditionally a period of intense prayer and devotion, Gazans feel weary, bracing for a continuation of the war during Eid al-Fitr. Maryam said the prices of holiday treats such as chocolate and cookies have already shot up, and communal tarawih prayers have been forbidden for residents’ safety.
Hiyam said her family had planned for 10 nights of collective prayer, including on Laylat al-Qadr, also called the Night of Power, which commemorates the night when Allah revealed the Quran to Muhammad. Before the war, she and her kids would spend these nights in the mosque, worshipping and seeking God’s forgiveness. They even ate suhoor in the mosque before going home.
“With the escalation, it will be difficult to gather, especially since there won’t be any lighting,” Hiyam said, referencing Gaza’s continued lack of electricity. “At night, in a war atmosphere, darkness prevails.”