Sad Ramadan for Palestinians

A Palestinian boy sells toy lamps on the first day of Ramadan in Gaza City.

"Lamb? What do you expect me to buy a lamb with?" counters Ahmed Hassan Makdad when asked about the menu on offer at home for the holy month.

He was queuing at the UN food distribution centre in Gaza's biggest refugee camp.

Around him, dozens of fellow Palestinians squeeze against the grilled ticket windows at UNWRA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, like Ahmed to collect rations of flour, oil, rice and sugar in the Jabaliya refugee camp.

Over the last six months, the Gaza Strip has sunk into the most severe crisis in 13 years due to a US-led aid cutoff after Hamas assumed office.

The Gaza economy is close to zero, given Israeli closures and Western aid boycotts, exacerbated by a massive Israeli offensive that has killed more than 200 Palestinians.

Israel has launched the offensive under the pretext of seeking to release a soldier taken prisoner by Palestinian fighters. But the Palestinians believe that it is nothing but a ruse to topple the Hamas-led government.

No longer will Ahmed be on the treadmill of visits to family and friends during Ramadan as such visits have become far too expensive.

"Tradition states that we give out presents, cakes or meat," says the 57-year-old father of eight.

"Instead of 10 visits this year, I'll only make one," adds Ahmed.

Tens of thousands of civil servants have not been paid in full since late February, affecting the livelihoods of around one million Palestinians -- a quarter of those living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

"Is This Life?"

On the other side of the agency offices, Um Nassim helps her son load six kilos of flour onto a cart drawn by a tired and emaciated donkey.

"I think this Ramadan will be the hardest of my life," she sighs, her flour-covered arms falling to her side.

"Is this life? We rely on foreign aid," interjects angry taxi driver Samir Al-Qatari interjects. In his eyes, no one escapes blame.

"The entire world is an accomplice to Palestinian misery: the United States, Europe and Arab countries. Arab countries especially."

Since March, UNWRA has added 100,000 people to lists of those receiving food aid in the Gaza Strip. Some 830,000 people, 60 percent of the population, now receive UN aid.

The World Food Program provides additional assistance to 280,000 people out of Gaza's total population of 1.4 million people packed into the crowded, impoverished Mediterranean coastal territory.

The West has made a resumption of aid dependent on the movement formally recognizing Israel's right to exist, renouncing violence and abiding by previous peace agreements.

Arab banks have been reluctant to transfer foreign funds to the government, fearful of US and EU sanctions, both designate the resistance group Hamas as a "terrorist" organization.

"The situation is crap. Look at all the kids here. You think they'd come here if they had work?" says the helpless Ahmed.

On a bench, Um Ossam sells food rations to Palestinians not classified as refugees and who do not therefore qualify for UNRWA aid.

"I sell sacks of flour to buy other things: at the moment it's the new school year and my children need books, exercise books and pens," she says, driving a hard bargain with a customer.

"There won't be an Eid celebration this year," she says.