As Muslims around the world gather for Ramadan meals with loved ones, one family in Gaza breaks its fast beside a mountain of rubble — the remains of a home where dozens of relatives were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
For Saddam al-Yazji, his wife Heba and their 11-year-old daughter Maryam, iftar is no longer a festive gathering but a quiet ritual performed in the shadow of loss.
The three sit at a small folding table set in the dirt in Gaza City, surrounded by twisted metal and shattered concrete slabs. Beneath the debris lie the bodies of much of their extended family.
A Strike That Wiped Out Dozens
In December 2023, an Israeli airstrike leveled the four-story al-Yazji family home in Gaza’s Rimal neighborhood. According to the surviving family members, 40 relatives were killed in the single strike — including Saddam’s parents, three brothers, sister, their children, and members of his wife’s family.
Among the dead were 22 children.
“We were in another part of the house,” al-Yazji said, recalling the night of the bombing. “We survived miraculously.”
Only a few bodies were recovered at the time. Around 20 relatives remain buried beneath the rubble. One of al-Yazji’s brothers is buried in a simple grave marked with sticks near the destroyed home.
Ramadan Without Family
Ramadan, the Islamic holy month during which Muslims fast from dawn to sunset, traditionally centers on family gatherings and communal meals. Before the war, al-Yazji’s father — a former judge with the Palestinian Authority and a respected sports official — hosted large iftar dinners, bringing together children and grandchildren around a table filled with rice, meat and traditional dishes.
Now, the atmosphere is starkly different.
“I look at photos of our gatherings in Ramadan and cry,” al-Yazji said. “Where is my family? All are wiped out. It’s the third Ramadan without them.”
The family spent much of the war displaced in a tent elsewhere in the city. After a ceasefire took effect in October, they moved to a tent pitched beside their destroyed home, determined to remain close to the memory of those they lost.
“Life is empty,” said Heba al-Yazji. “The war took everything from me. We wish we had died with them rather than remain alone.”
A Wider Human Toll
The Israel-Hamas war, now in its third year, has devastated much of the Gaza Strip. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 72,000 people have been killed, nearly half of them women and children. Thousands more are believed to remain trapped beneath collapsed buildings.
The conflict began after Hamas-led fighters launched an attack on southern Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Israel responded with a large-scale military campaign aimed at dismantling Hamas. Israeli officials say strikes target militants, though entire families have frequently been killed in residential areas and displacement camps.
Today, nearly all of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents have been displaced at least once. Vast tent camps stretch across the enclave, and more than 80% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
In the once-bustling Rimal district, now reduced to rubble, the al-Yazji family’s small Ramadan table stands as a symbol of collective grief shared by countless households.
Across Gaza, Ramadan has become not only a time of spiritual reflection but also a season marked by remembrance — of homes lost, loved ones buried, and family tables that now sit empty.