GAZA
\nIn the hour before sunset during Ramadan, Gaza\u2019s roads become choked with cars as people dash home in time to break their fast with their families.
\nFrustrated drivers beep their horns or try to cut through the gridlock, and there are more accidents than usual as a whole day without food or water dulls concentration and shortens tempers.
\nFor those unlucky enough to miss breaking the fast altogether as they stand in solid traffic, Ehab Ayyad is a welcome sight.
\nThe Christian man from Gaza offers dates and water to Muslims held up in traffic or late home to break their fast, in keeping with the Prophet\u2019s tradition.
\nFive years ago, Ayyad began by offering neighbours dates and water, the first thing Muslims normally eat when they end their fast at sunset, and decided to make the offer general.
\n\u201cAs a Christian, I offer my Muslim brothers dates and water as a kind of sharing because we\u2019re living in the same homeland, and we have the same blood,\u201d Ayyad, 23, told Reuters, at his house, decorated with lanterns and small statues of the Virgin Mary. \u201cThey first wondered how a Christian is doing that, but as days went by, they got happy to see me every year,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cReactions are positive and I am happy and proud.\u201d
\nGaza, the coastal strip under an Israeli-led blockade since 2007 and run by the Islamist Hamas group, has only around 1,000 Christians, most of them Greek Orthodox, in a population of 2.3 million.
\n\u201cIt isn\u2019t their month and they don\u2019t fast but they feel for us and this is something good,\u201d said coffee shop owner Louay Al-Zaharna, after receiving one of Ayyad\u2019s gifts.
\nAt his house, Ayyad got help from a 13-year-old Muslim neighbour to prepare the packages.
\n\u201cOn our holidays, our Muslim neighbours come to visit and congratulate us, and we do the same on their holidays,\u201d Ayyad said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GAZA In the hour before sunset during Ramadan, Gaza\u2019s roads become choked with cars as people dash home in time to break their fast with their families. Frustrated drivers beep their horns or try to cut through the gridlock, and there are more accidents than usual as a whole day without food or water dulls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-325872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n