Hopes for a truce in Gaza give way to fears of a long stalemate

RAMADAN, the Muslim month of fasting, was never going to be a joyful time in Gaza this year, but it was at least meant to be a hopeful one. For weeks Western and Arab officials laboured to strike a truce between Israel and Hamas before it began on March 10th. Palestinians in Gaza would have had a respite from five months of near-constant war. Dozens of Israeli hostages would have returned home. Diplomats hoped they could then turn the temporary ceasefire into a permanent one.

It was not to be. The talks failed, and the war continues. The death toll in Gaza has passed 31,000, a majority of them civilians, including 67 people who were found dead on the first day of Ramadan. Families are struggling to find food for iftar, the nightly fast-breaking meal. The more than 130 remaining hostages have now entered their sixth month of captivity, and dozens of them are thought to be dead already.