Ramadan brings no relief as Israel-Hamas war rages in Gaza

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES — The first day of Ramadan 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.

"We are running out of time," Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Programme (WFP), said on Monday. "If we do not exponentially increase the size of aid going into the northern areas" of Gaza, she said, "famine is imminent."

The United Nations has reported particular difficulty in accessing northern Gaza for deliveries of food and other aid.

Gazans throughout the territory are feeling shortages even more during Ramadan.

"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."

Any 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.

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