Indian expat walked from Sharjah to Ajman after date-water iftar

May 28, 2017

Ajman, May 28: An Indian expat in Ajman has recalled his first Ramadan in the country when he would have just dates and water for Iftar, followed by a long journey on foot from his workplace in Sharjah to his home in Ajman.

Syed Ali Maqsood, 51, moved to Ajman in 1990 from Hyderabad. Those were the days when Maqsood wasn't very well off. Today, he has four kids and they all indulge in large bowls of biryani to break their fast. "I used to work under my elder brother who owned a photo studio in Sharjah, near the cricket stadium at that time. Suhoor used to be very humble back then. We used to have roti and milk every suhoor, as well as a curry, another delicacy, which would be a thing of luxury," he said.

"My wife was expecting our second child then. We lived in Ajman and my typical day during this time was very 'historical', rather than calling it struggle.

"After Suhoor, I would start my day at 7am, when my brother would drive me to the studio from Ajman. Later in the evening, I would break my fast with only a bottle of water and few dates and start my journey on foot to home all the way to Ajman, Rashidiya. I still remember the sweatiness and cramps from the first Ramadan I spent and this went on for a year."

Maqsood said that back then, a particular home in every district of Ajman would be elected to cool food in large quantities to serve their community.

When Maqsood would get home from work, his wife had a proper dinner prepared for the family. "Fruits and sherbet was the usual Iftar followed by dinner. Our financial condition was erratic, it would be high some few months and low during others," he said. "Now by the grace of Allah, I have four children all grown up and healthy and my every Suhoor and Iftar is filled with so much blessings and choices. This is very much a dream that I never thought I would living as such a blessed reality. I am very thankful for what I have gained from this country by the grace of Almighty."

Today, Maqsood and his four children still reside in Ajman, except, now they have fuller meals for Iftar.

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Israel orders 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate eastern Rafah ahead of ground invasion

News Network

May 6,2024

The Israeli regime is forcibly evacuating Palestinians from the eastern part of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip amid the prospect of its widely-discouraged ground invasion.

“The estimate is around 100,000 people,” an Israeli military spokesman told journalists on Monday when asked how many people were being evacuated.

International organizations, including the United Nations, have repeatedly warned the regime against invading the city, citing its hosting around 1.5 million Palestinian refugees.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a ground assault on Rafah would “put the final nail in the coffin” for humanitarian aid operations in the Gaza Strip.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also said, “Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death,” with an official saying “It could be a slaughter of civilians.”

Multiple aid agencies, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, have likewise warned against a Rafah offensive.

The NRC said such an invasion “would profoundly exacerbate the already catastrophic levels of need and the humanitarian emergency for millions of civilians with nowhere left to go.”

The official alleged Hamas had killed three Israeli forces on Sunday, attacking them from Rafah.

The evacuation order came a sat least 22 people lost their lives in the regime’s airstrikes killed in Rafah earlier on Monday.

Rafah’s evacuation “is part of our plans to dismantle Hamas,” the Israeli spokesman added, referring to the Palestinian resistance movement that has been defending Gaza in the face of the war.

The Palestinians have fled there from the ravages of a war that the regime began waging against Gaza on October 7, following a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

At least 34,683 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 78,018 others injured so far during the brutal military onslaught.

On Friday, Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on carrying out a ground invasion of Rafah was a key stumbling block in negotiations aimed at a truce agreement.

The Israeli premier has said the regime would go ahead with invading the city “with or without” a truce.

Hamas has, however, asserted that the regime has failed to defeat the resistance during the war.

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