Gaza awakes to a 'bloody suhoor' as Israel stages Ramadan massacre

On Tuesday at dawn, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip woke up expecting another ordinary day during Ramadan. Families, friends, and neighbors gathered to prepare the pre-dawn meal, Suhoor, to prepare for the day's fast.

However, the Israeli military planned to exploit this moment of communal ritual to launch a fierce assault on the Palestinian enclave and shatter the fragile, 58-day ceasefire. Shortly after 2:00 AM, a series of Israeli airstrikes hit dozens of residential buildings and schools sheltering displaced people across Gaza.

One of the first targets was the Tabaeen School in the Daraj neighborhood in central Gaza City, which housed hundreds of displaced Palestinians. The bombing resulted in the deaths of at least 25 Palestinians, including women and children who were taking refuge in the school. The school had already been targeted three times since the beginning of the war.

Shortly after the attack, Mohammed Shaweesh stood among survivors and local residents who came to help. He had just learned that his sister and her children had been killed in the attack. "My sister's husband was killed at the beginning of the war. Today, they bombed the Tabaeen School, where she and her children were sheltering," Shaweesh told Middle East Eye. "They bombed the classroom next to the one where my sister was staying. She was killed with her children. Only one boy and one girl survived. Among the dead was a baby whose father never got to see him."

In the Shujaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, two houses belonging to the Qureiq family were targeted, resulting in the deaths of at least five Palestinians and injuries to ten others. In front of one of the destroyed houses, a relative desperately pleaded with ambulances on the phone to come and take away the body of his cousin. "They told me to take her to the hospital myself," he told Middle East Eye as he hung up. His cousin, Malam, had survived the attack on the Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in October 2023, but now died in her own home during the ceasefire. "Her body has been here for more than two hours. We have been calling ambulances since then, but there are no ambulances available," he said.

Israel has repeatedly attacked ambulances, medical personnel, and search and rescue teams throughout the war, leaving emergency response efforts severely strained. The family tried to find a taxi to transport Malam's body, but none were available. Since March 2, Israel has imposed a strict blockade on Gaza, preventing aid, food, medicine, and supplies of fuel and cooking gas from entering. This means that fuel for cars is extremely scarce, causing transportation services to grind to a halt. "Due to the fuel [shortage] and the blockade, we couldn't find any taxis or cars. I had to carry the body myself and take it to the hospital [for burial] because we couldn't wait any longer," Malam's cousin said.

A large number of bodies have been transported to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Most of the bodies have been identified and placed on the floor awaiting burial. While the exact casualty figures remain unknown, with dozens still missing or trapped under the rubble, the Gaza Ministry of Health has confirmed that at least 420 Palestinians have been killed and another 562 injured in the ongoing bombardment.

In the hospital's courtyard, Soud Abdulsalam Ahmed Saweesh stood gazing at the bodies covered in white and blue plastic shrouds. "I don't have [relatives] among these victims. But my son was killed at the beginning of the war, and my nephew was killed in Nuseirat. All of them," he told Middle East Eye. "We just want a ceasefire. We appeal to everyone who cares about a ceasefire, we don't want anything else."

Following the initial attacks, the Israeli military issued mass evacuation orders to residents in various parts of the Gaza Strip, including Beit Hanoun, Khuza'a, and Abasan. As hundreds of families fled the designated areas, Palestinians elsewhere began packing their belongings, anticipating further orders. For the first time in nearly two months, the main streets of Gaza City were almost empty. Only a few scattered individuals could be seen stocking up on food, preparing for the worst. However, the scene around the few remaining hospitals in Gaza was drastically different. The streets were filled with panicked people and rushing ambulances.

Firas Salama, a resident of the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City, rushed to a popular market shortly after sunrise, hoping to secure food before supplies ran out. The mother of five, carrying a plastic bag containing two bottles of cooking oil, rice, and sugar, said she could barely afford the necessities. "The market is almost empty. I couldn't even find the most basic groceries. And even when I did find them, the prices were so high that we couldn't afford them," she told Middle East Eye. Salama said she usually wakes up about an hour before her husband and children to prepare Suhoor for them. "But this time, we were all awakened by the massive sounds of bombing from all directions. We didn't know what was happening because things seemed fine when we went to sleep. Later, we learned that the Israeli occupation forces had announced the resumption of the war," she said. "Honestly, after hearing the news of hundreds of people being killed, we didn't want to eat anything in this bloody Suhoor. It's another war."