Palestinians on Friday October 14 2004, marked the first day of the holy month of Ramadan. A month of praying, fasting, and giving.

For Palestinians in Gaza, Ramadan comes after a seventeen-day deadly Israeli offensive codenamed "Days of Penitence". An offensive that caused the deaths of 130 Palestinians, among them 31 children.

It also caused the injury of 421 Palestinians, including 138 children. Not to mention the house demolitions in which at least 80 houses were demolished in northern Gaza, including at least 60 in Jebaliya and 20 in Beit Lahiya leaving hundreds of Palestinian families homeless.

In a recent UN report, an average of 120 residential buildings are demolished each month in Gaza (4 each day) leaving approximately 1,200 Palestinians homeless each month. Over the past four years this comes to 24,547 Gazans made homeless by Israel’s systematic demolition of Palestinian homes.

Israel has supposedly ended its seventeen day operation in Gaza on Friday evening. Although Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim told Israel radio that "There is a change in the presence of the troops, but the operation is continuing".

On Friday, shortly before the "pullback", Fatma Asselah, a 65-year-old woman, was shot in the head and killed by Israeli troops in the Jabalya refugee camp as she sat with her family waiting to break the fast on the first day of Ramadan.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has decided to ban Gaza residents from entering the Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan while allowing only thirty thousand Palestinians (compared to the usual 250 thousand Palestinians) from the West Bank to enter the Al-aqsa Mosque.

Israel has warned that the Aqsa mosque may collapse under the weight of worshippers during the month of Ramadan, but the Palestinian Awkaf denied the claims and guaranteed that the Awkaf will carry out maintenance works required at the Marwani mosque. The decision came after Jordanian engineers examined the Marwani mosque and dismissed the Israeli claims, saying that the mosque is capable of withstanding the pressure.

On Saturday Palestinians began retrieving belongings from the rubble of homes destroyed, while work began to patch up roads, fix water pipes and electricity poles that had all been destroyed or damaged in Israel’s deadliest offensive in the Gaza Strip in four years of fighting.

According to a dozen United Nations aid agencies working in the region, on top of the sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation this year in Gaza, this latest offensive is pushing the Palestinian population into a deep crisis. In fact, according to an OCHA report based on 2003 conditions, the poverty rate in Gaza is predicted to rise to 72% by 2004. However, as the economic situation in 2004 has worsened significantly - these predictions are likely to be an underestimate.

For more information contact: The Palestine Monitor
http://www.palestinemonitor.org