Amid Rubble and Ruin, Syrians in War-Scarred Douma Break Ramadan Fast

Residents of the besieged Syrian town of Douma gathered outside over the weekend to break their Ramadan fast around colorful tables — amid rubble-strewn streets and bombed-out buildings.

The evening meal held at the end of each day's Ramadan fast at sunset, Iftar, was organized by the Adaleh Foundation, a Syrian humanitarian organization created in 2012 to assist Eastern Ghouta, a rebel stronghold to the east of the capital Damascus.

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"We would have normally been cautious to host such events due to air strikes, but we are taking advantage of the latest de-escalation deal," an official from the foundation's Turkey office told the BBC.

In early May, the International Committee of the Red Cross, along with the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, said it went into Douma, the main urban center of the Eastern Ghouta, with 51 trucks loaded with food and medical supplies for 35,000 people.

On April 3, Syrian jets bombed residential areas in the eastern countryside of Damascus killing and injuring dozens in some of the heaviest bombing raids on the main rebel enclave near the capital in months, residents and activists said. At least 22 people were killed and scores injured after four aerial raids hit a crowded district in Douma.