What is Eid al-Fitr and how do Muslims celebrate the Islamic holiday?

CAIRO (AP) — Muslims around the world are bidding farewell to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and will soon start celebrating the holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Eid is typically greeted with joy and excitement and is marked with congregational prayers and festivities that usually include family visits, gatherings, outings and new clothes.

For some Muslims, this year's Eid comes amid significant changes in their communities.

In Gaza, this will be the second Eid al-Fitr since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza by launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of people. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the strikes after Hamas refused Israeli demands to free half of the remaining hostages as a precondition for extending the ceasefire. Earlier this month, Israel halted deliveries of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza.

The resumption of war changed the fortunes of Palestinians in Gaza who had started observing Ramadan under a fragile ceasefire. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The war was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel in which Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, Syrians will celebrate their first Eid al-Fitr since the end of more than half a century of the Assad family’s iron-fisted rule. The country's first Ramadan since the ouster of Bashar Assad, who was the president, saw many Syrians relieved, but has also witnessed a bloody and worrisome bout of violence amid a complex transition.

In the United States, several supporters of Palestinian causes with ties to American universities have been detained in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.

It’s an Islamic holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the month when devout Muslims fast daily from dawn to sunset. Ramadan is a time for increased worship, charity, and good deeds. It also typically sees festive gatherings to break the fast.

Eid al-Fitr means the feast, or festival, of breaking the fast.

Islam follows a lunar calendar and so Ramadan and Eid cycle through the seasons. This year, the first day of Eid al-Fitr is expected to be on or around March 30; the exact date may vary among countries and Muslim communities.

Eid Mubarak, or Blessed Eid, and Happy Eid.

In Indonesia, many people embark on an exodus to their hometowns to celebrate the holiday with loved ones in a homecoming tradition known locally as “mudik.”

In recent Eid celebrations, Indonesians have packed airports or crammed into trains, ferries, buses and onto motorcycles as they poured out of major cities amid severe traffic congestion to return to their villages to celebrate the holiday with families.

Before the holiday, popular markets teem with shoppers buying clothes, shoes, cookies and sweets.

In Malaysia, Muslims also have a homecoming tradition for Eid. The first day usually begins with a morning prayer in the mosque, seeking forgiveness from family and friends, and visiting loved ones’ graves.

There’s an “open house” spirit that sees friends and families trading visits to celebrate Eid and enjoy traditional delicacies such as ketupat, rice cooked in a palm leaf pouch, and rendang, a meat dish stewed in spices and braised in coconut milk.

Older Muslims give money in green packets to children and guests who visit their homes.

In Egypt, families partake in Eid prayers amid a festive atmosphere. Many visit relatives, friends or neighbors and some travel to vacation spots. Children, usually wearing new Eid outfits, receive traditional cash gifts known as “eidiya.”

Making or buying Eid cookies dusted with powdered sugar is another fixture of marking the holiday in the country.

In the United States, where Muslims make up an ethnically and racially diverse minority, many come together for Eid prayers and for festivals featuring fun activities for children and families. These often include such things as face painting and balloon twisting.

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

People wait for a bus to take them back home towns ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday at Pondok Pinang Bus Terminal in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

An Iraqi woman buy clothes for Eid al-Fitr at the Shorjah market in central Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, March 27, 2025. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

An Iraqi woman shops for clothes ahead of Eid al-Fitr at the Shorjah market in central Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, March 27, 2025. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

People wait for the bus that will bring them to their home towns during the mass exodus out of the the capital city ahead of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month, at Kalideres bus terminal in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

People wait for the bus that will bring them to their home towns during the mass exodus out of the the capital city ahead of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month, at Kalideres bus terminal in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

A Pakistani browses children's clothes at a market as he shops for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr celebrations, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

The Israeli military struck a building in Beirut’s southern suburbs early Tuesday, killing at least four people, in an attack it said targeted a member of the Hezbollah militant group.

The airstrike came just days after Israel launched its first attack on the Lebanese capital since a ceasefire ended fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in November. At least seven other people were wounded in Tuesday's strike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, report finding it harder to find food amid bakery closures. Israel says enough food entered Gaza during a six-week ceasefire with Hamas to sustain the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians for “a long period of time.” Israel has not allowed food, fuel or humanitarian aid to enter Gaza for a month to pressure Hamas — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.

Here's the latest:

Dozens or Palestinians lined up outside a United Nations warehouse in northern Gaza on Tuesday to receive food parcels from the agency’s rapidly dwindling supplies, as Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza for the past month.

Nageya Gaballah, a displaced woman living in a tent with 10 family members, said she wouldn’t be able to secure essentials if it weren’t for aid and vouchers distributed by UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. She lost her job as a cleaning staffer at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza last month and her husband is unemployed.

At the warehouse in Jabaliya, UNRWA distributed flour bags and food parcels with cooking oil, canned tuna, beans, hummus, salt, sugar and yeast.

Mohamed Ghabn, who is also unemployed, said securing food has become extremely difficult, as he cannot afford to buy it from markets when it's available, and World Food Program-supported bakeries have shut down. He said a bag of pita bread costs 30 shekels ($8) and a kilogram of tomatoes is priced at 15 shekels ($4).

“We are unemployed and don’t have jobs. We’re just sitting there, and we don’t have shelter or anything … simply speaking, I can’t feed my children,” he said.

Mohamed Salah Bardawil was a journalist with the Hamas-affiliated Aqsa Radio. He was the nephew of Salah Bardawil, a well-known member of Hamas’ political bureau who Israel killed last month in a strike that also killed his wife.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike, which hit the journalist's home early Tuesday in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis and killed his wife, two daughters and son.

Associated Press footage showed the building completely collapsed, with dried blood splatted on the grey rubble. Nearby, a child’s school notebook, dust-covered dolls and clothing lay half-buried in the ruins.

Fathi Nushasi, a Khan Younis resident who lives nearby, said the airstrike felt like an earthquake.

"I've witnessed many wars, but I have never seen anything like what happened to us. The rubble entered our bedroom,” he said.

Dozens of people gathered at Nasser Hospital for funeral prayers, with one man crying in anguish, “Those were children sleeping!” A press vest was placed over Bardawil's body bag.

Israel has killed over 170 journalists and media workers since the war with Hamas began in October 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists estimated as of March 24. Most recently, prominent Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat was killed by a strike on his car.

Israel says enough food entered the Gaza Strip during its six-week ceasefire with Hamas to sustain the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians for “a long period of time.”

U.N. agencies have warned that food is running out, and Palestinians in Gaza say markets are largely empty after Israel cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to the territory at the beginning of March to pressure Hamas.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said Tuesday that more than 25,000 trucks entered Gaza during the ceasefire, carrying nearly 450,000 tons of aid. It said that amount represented around a third of what has entered during the entire war.

“There is enough food for a long period of time, if Hamas lets the civilians have it,” it said.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip say it’s even harder to find food as bakeries close due to a tightened Israeli blockade of the territory.

The World Food Program was forced to close another 19 bakeries that had served hundreds of thousands of people because its supplies are dwindling, according to an internal memo circulated among aid groups on Monday.

Mohammed al-Kurd, a father of 12, said his children go to bed without dinner.

“We tell them to be patient and that we will bring flour in the morning,” he said. “We lie to them and to ourselves.” Sulaiman Hasanat, a father of seven, said his family often spends an entire day searching for bread without any luck.

Israel cut off the supply of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians in early March to pressure Hamas into accepting changes to their ceasefire agreement. Israel resumed airstrikes and ground operations later that month.

The World Food Program says it’s immediately closing all of its bakeries in Gaza following a monthlong blockade by Israel into the strip.

In an internal memo circulated among aid groups Monday, the U.N. agency said that due to the lack of humanitarian aid, its supplies are running out and it doesn’t have enough wheat flour needed to make bread.

The agency said it’s distributed all available food rations, and there are unfortunately no more stocks.

For four weeks, Israel has shut off all sources of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies for the Gaza Strip’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians. It’s the longest blockade yet of the 17-month war with Hamas, with no sign of it ending.

Aid workers have stretched supplies, but warn of a catastrophic surge in severe hunger and malnutrition.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has withdrawn his nomination of a former navy commander to lead the country’s internal security agency after a flurry of criticism.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement early Tuesday after meeting with Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit that he “intends to examine other candidates,” without elaborating.

The nomination announced on Monday had provoked widespread criticism from allies and opponents.

Critics of Netanyahu are already up in arms over his move to fire Ronen Bar, the current head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency, viewing it as part of a broader assault on state institutions at a time when Netanyahu is on trial for alleged corruption and his aides are being investigated over links to the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar.

Israel’s Supreme Court froze Bar’s dismissal pending further hearings but cleared the way for Netanyahu to interview candidates for the job.

The nomination of Sharvit angered some of Netanyahu’s allies after Israeli media reported that he had taken part in protests against Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul the judiciary in 2023.

The move also brought an unexpected rebuke from Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top ally of President Donald Trump, who tweeted an excerpt of an op-ed Sharvit had written for an Israeli technology news website in January 2024 criticizing Trump’s climate policies.

Graham called the nomination “beyond problematic.”

The Israeli military says it intercepted a projectile fired from the Gaza Strip early Tuesday that set off sirens in nearby communities.

Palestinian militants have fired a small number of rockets, without causing any casualties or damage, since Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas last month.

Israel has launched waves of airstrikes and limited ground operations, killing hundreds of Palestinians.

Hamas ignited the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251, most of whom have since been released in ceasefires or other deals. Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants or civilians.

Civil defence and Lebanese army soldiers work at the site of an Israeli targeted strike on an apartment building in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Mourners carry the bodies of three members of Dahouh family, killed when an Israeli army strike hit their tent, before their burial at the hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of three members of Dahouh family, killed when an Israeli army strike hit their tent, before their burial at the hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech during the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem, Israel,Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Damaged apartment buildings are seen after being struck earlier by an Israeli attack in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Civil defence workers clean the debris after an apartemnet building was hit by Israeli targeted strike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

FILE -Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit arrives on board the Israeli Navy Ship Atzmaut in the Mediterranean Sea, Sept. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)