Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, has received most of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine in recent years. The country's currency has also taken a dive in recent days, adding to other pressures driving up prices.
"We were going to be affected, at any rate. We just pray that God will make this pass," said customer Hassan Ali Hassan.
The soaring prices exacerbated the woes of Lebanese already facing a major economic crisis. Over the past two years, the currency collapsed and the country's middle class was plunged into poverty. The country's meltdown has also brought on severe shortages in electricity, fuel and medicine.
In the Gaza Strip, few people were shopping Friday in markets usually packed at this time of year. Merchants said Russia's war on Ukraine has sent prices skyrocketing, alongside the usual challenges, putting a damper on the festive atmosphere that Ramadan usually creates.
The living conditions of the 2.3 million Palestinians in the impoverished coastal territory are tough, compounded by a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since 2007.
In Istanbul, Muslims held the first Ramadan prayers in 88 years in Hagia Sophia, nearly two years after the former cathedral was converted into a mosque.
Worshippers filled the 6th-century building and the square outside Friday night for tarawih prayers led by Ali Erbaş, the government head of religious affairs. Although converted for Islamic use and renamed the Grand Hagia Sophia Mosque in July 2020, COVID-19 restrictions had limited worship at the site.
"After 88 years of separation, the Hagia Sophia Mosque has regained the tarawih prayer," Erbaş said, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.
