The Saudi Supreme Court has declared that "Monday March 11, 2024" will mark "the beginning of the blessed month of Ramadan for this year", reported SPA, the official news agency of Saudi Arabia, which houses the most sacred of Islam.

Ramadan, one of the five pillars of Islam whose beginning is marked by the appearance of the first crescent moon, will also begin Monday in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, according to the authorities of those countries.

Saudis watch through telescopes for the appearance of the first crescent moon marking the start of the holy month of Ramadan, on March 10, 2024 in Hautat Sudair in Riyadh province, Saudi Arabia © Fisent Nureldine / AFP

For its part, Iran had set its start for Tuesday, after its "Estehlal", or moon observation office, declared that it had not been possible to observe "the crescent of Ramadan" .

In Oman and Libya, Ramadan will also begin on Tuesday as the crescent was not visible on Sunday, authorities in both countries reported.

In Jordan, the grand mufti of the kingdom, Ahmed Hasnat, also announced that “Tuesday will be the first day of Ramadan”.

He asked God to “relieve the anguish of our oppressed people in Gaza” and “lift the affliction and aggression weighing on them.”

A young Palestinian plays with fireworks in a camp for displaced people in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, March 10, 2024 © MOHAMMED ABED / AFP

"I am ashamed"

For Muslims around the world, Ramadan is synonymous with prayer, spirituality, and joyful meals after dark.

But this year, the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza is on everyone's minds.

Death, destruction and the threat of famine overshadow everything else, as hopes of a truce before Ramadan have vanished, an objective that the mediating countries had tried to achieve in recent days in Cairo ( Egypt, Qatar and the United States) and Hamas.

Iraqi workers install decorations on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, March 10, 2024 in Basra © Hussein Faleh / AFP

At a market in Rafah, a town in the south of the Gaza Strip where nearly 1.5 million people have found refuge, Palestinians deplored on Sunday the food shortages and the uncertainty linked to the war which weighs on the start of Ramadan .

Street illuminations on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, March 10, 2024 in Basra © Hussein Faleh / AFP

“This Ramadan is completely different from all the Ramadans that preceded it,” testified Bassel Yassin, agricultural engineer.

“We don’t know how we are going to end this month of Ramadan: in our homes, in a tent, by the sea in the north or in the south,” said Hassouna Tabib Hassnan, a dentist from the city. from Gaza (north), deploring living "in displacement, pain and oppression".

A pastry seller on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, March 10, 2024 in the Afghan city of Kandahar © Sanaullah SEIAM / AFP

In a shopping center in Riyadh, Faisal, a Saudi government employee who did not wish to give his last name, assured that it was the "worst Ramadan" of his life.

“I am ashamed to buy meat and chicken for my family, while the people of Gaza are in the grip of famine,” he confided.

The war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally taken from official Israeli data.

A woman observes the moon through a telescope on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, March 10, 2024 in Medan, Indonesia © ARIANDI / AFP

The Israeli military offensive launched in retaliation left more than 31,000 dead in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, according to the Islamist movement's Ministry of Health.

With AFP

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