Family mourns losses in war-torn Gaza during the holy month of Ramadan

Описание: (27 Feb 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – 24 February 2026
1. Family breaking their fast near their destroyed house
2. Close of destroyed home
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Heba Al-Yazji, lost her family in Israeli airstrike: + STARTS ON SHOT 1 AND PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 4 AND 5++
”In previous Ramadans, we used to gather with our families around this time and enjoy their company. This Ramadan, life is empty; it's just me and my daughter all day long. I've lost all my family. Even if I still had a sister or brother to visit and see, there's no one. This Ramadan, the loneliness has become overwhelming.”
4. Wide of destruction
5. Various of family breaking their fast near their destroyed house
6. Close of photos in album of Al-Yazji's relatives who were killed in Israeli airstrike
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saddam Al-Yazji, lost his family in Israeli airstrike: ++STARTS ON SHOT 6 AND PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 8++
”The sweet gathering. The family gathering is gone too. One would drink coffee, drink tea, eat. All of that does obviously not exist in our family because it's over. The family is gone. It's all been erased.”
8. Various of local resident, Saddam Al-Yazji, looking at photos with his wife and daughter
9. Various of family breaking fast near destroyed house
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Heba Al-Yazji, lost her family in Israeli airstrike: ++STARTS ON SHOT 9 AND PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 11 AND 12++
”The war took everything from me. It left me with nothing. It took the dearest people to my heart: my mother, my father, my siblings, my uncle's family who are like a second family to me. Our homes, my children.”
11. Saddam kneeling on ground near his brother grave praying for him
12. Close of Saddam rubbing dirt on grave
13. Close of Saddam
STORYLINE:
Surrounded by piles of concrete slabs, twisted metals, and debris, Saddam al-Yazji sat with his wife and their daughter on plastic chairs around a table outside their makeshift tent.

The three were set to break a dawn-to-sunset fast.

This scene on an afternoon in Gaza City stands in stark contrast to typical family gatherings during the holy month of Ramadan in past years.

Al-Yazji’s father used to bring his children and grandchildren together for iftar – the fast-breaking meal.

”The sweet gathering. The family gathering is gone too. One would drink coffee, drink tea, eat. All of that does obviously not exist in our family because it's over," he said, recalling his parents, siblings and other relatives who were killed in an Israeli strike early in the Hamas-Israel war.

"The family is gone. It's all been erased."

This year’s Ramadan came as Gaza remains under a fragile ceasefire deal that stopped the heavy fighting between Hamas and Israel.

Ramadan, which is known for its increased worship, religious reflection and charity, is also a month of festivities across the Muslim world.

It brings families together for iftar or for the predawn meal - “suhoor” - in warm and lively gatherings.

Al-Yazji said it was the third Ramadan without his wider family.

The 35-year-old spoke to the Associated Press as his wife, Heba al-Yazji, was preparing their iftar just outside a makeshift tent built on what was their house in Gaza City.

They say that for them Ramadan has become a season of grief.

It reminds them of their families. They and their 11-year-old daughter, Hanan, are the sole survivors of at least 50 people who were killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the Hamas-Israel war.


The couple lost their parents, siblings, in-laws and many nephews and nieces.





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