When the call to prayer echoes across Gaza this Ramadan, it no longer comes from towering minarets or historic mosques. Instead, it rises from makeshift prayer spaces amid rubble and loss.<\/p>\n
Anwar Abu Shaweesh, director general in Gaza\u2019s Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, said the destruction caused by Israel’s war<\/a> is staggering. <\/p>\n Over the course of the conflict, about 1,160 of Gaza\u2019s 1,244 mosques \u2013 or nine out of every 10 mosques \u2013 were either destroyed or heavily damaged. At least 909 were flattened entirely, while 251 were rendered unusable.<\/p>\n Mr Abu Shaweesh estimates that damage to mosques, churches, cemeteries and religious sites exceeds $500 million. Among the most significant casualties was the Great Omari Mosque in Gaza city, a historic mosque dating back hundreds of years<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe destruction affected the ability of people to perform religious rites,\u201d Mr Abu Shaweesh told The National, particularly during Ramadan, when attendance traditionally surges for Taraweeh and night prayers.<\/p>\n In response, communities and charitable groups have built about 500 temporary prayer spaces across Gaza<\/a>, many inside shelters or displacement camps. They are simple, made of wooden frames, iron poles, and plastic sheeting, but they are not enough.<\/p>\n For Mousa Abu Kweik, 35, from Gaza city\u2019s Al Nasr neighbourhood, the Great Omari Mosque was more than a place of worship. Before the war, he rarely missed a night of Taraweeh there during Ramadan.<\/p>\n \u201cIt had a special atmosphere,\u201d he said. \u201cThe beautiful voices reciting the Quran, it was something you felt in your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n For two Ramadans, displacement kept him away. But this year, youths rebuilt a small prayer space on the mosque\u2019s ruins. Mousa returned to pray there. \u201cIt is not what it was,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it is better than absence.\u201d<\/p>\n The stone arches and centuries-old architecture are gone. So are many of the worshippers who once filled the courtyard. More than 330 ministry employees, imams and preachers were killed during the war, and 27 remain detained in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n \u201cThe greatest sorrow,\u201d says Sheikh Diaa Abu Mahadi, an imam from Jabalia Camp now displaced in Gaza city<\/a>. \u201cIs the loss of our fellow imams and preachers who used to stand with us in Ramadan\u201d.<\/p>\n Sheikh Diaa now leads prayers in temporary structures. He says this Ramadan feels different from the past two years, when intense fighting made prayers nearly impossible. A relative calm has allowed people to gather again, although not in the mosques they once knew.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople come in large numbers,\u201d he says. \u201cThey hold tightly to these rituals.\u201d<\/p>\n