In pics: Ramadan meals among ruins in Syria's besieged Douma

For residents, they provide a rare respite from the horrors of the country's six-year war.

Update: 2017-06-22 05:50 GMT

The tables laden with food to break the Ramadan fast are surrounded by the crumbling carcasses of bombed-out buildings.

The meals are prepared in a makeshift street kitchen largely hidden from view by a swathe of red-and-green striped cloth hung around three sides of the cooking stations from a metal frame, like curtains.

Main dishes quickly follow, filling the six tables that each seat around 40 people, with others in an overflow section on the street.

They are topped first with orange juice and dates ready for residents to break their day-long fast as soon as the sun sets and the call to prayer begins.

In recent years, such communal \"iftars\" or fast-breaking meals have been organised rarely and always inside buildings that provided some protection from the constant threat of government bombardment.

The open-air meals are a rare treat in the town in the Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus

For residents, they provide a rare respite from the horrors of the country's six-year war.

In pics: Ramadan meals among ruins in Syria's besieged Douma

For residents, they provide a rare respite from the horrors of the country's six-year war.

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