In the stifling heat and amidst bombed-out mosques, Gazans marked the start of Eid al-Adha on Sunday, but the usual cheer was absent as the Israel-Hamas war continued to rage.
“There is no joy. We have been robbed of it,” said Malakiya Salman, a 57-year-old woman now living in a tent in Khan Yunis City in the southern Gaza Strip. Traditionally, Gazans, like Muslims worldwide, would slaughter sheep and share the meat with the needy during this holiday. Parents would also gift children new clothes and money.
However, this year, after over eight months of relentless Israeli bombardment that has devastated much of Gaza, displaced most of its 2.4 million residents, and triggered repeated famine warnings, Eid is marked by misery for many. “I hope the world will put pressure to end the war on us because we are truly dying, and our children are broken,” Salman pleaded.
Salman’s family was displaced from Rafah, a recent hotspot of the conflict that began following Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel. The military announced a “tactical pause of military activity” around a Rafah-area route to facilitate the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gazans. AFP correspondents reported no strikes or shelling since dawn, although the Israeli military clarified there was “no cessation of hostilities in the southern Gaza Strip.”
The brief respite allowed worshippers a rare moment of calm during the holiday, which honors the prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son before God offered a sheep instead. Many gathered for the Eid al-Adha morning prayer in the courtyard of Gaza City’s historic Omari Mosque, heavily damaged by Israeli bombardment. They placed their frayed prayer mats next to mounds of rubble, and the sound of prayers echoed through the city’s destroyed streets.
“Since this morning, we’ve felt a sudden calm with no gunfire or bombings… It’s strange,” said 30-year-old Haitham al-Ghura from Gaza City. He expressed hope that the pause might signal a permanent ceasefire, although truce mediation efforts have stalled for months.
In several war-battered areas, especially in Gaza City, young boys manned roadside shops selling perfumes, lotions, and other items against the backdrop of piles of rubble. Many vendors used umbrellas to protect themselves from the scorching sun as they sold household items on Gaza City’s main market street, but there were few buyers.
For many, a halt in fighting cannot bring back what has been lost. The deadliest-ever Gaza war began after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,296 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
“We’ve lost many people, there’s a lot of destruction,” said Umm Muhammad al-Katri from Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. “This Eid is completely different,” she noted, with many Gazans forced to spend the holiday without their loved ones killed or displaced during the war.
Grieving families on Sunday flocked to cemeteries and other makeshift burial sites, where wooden planks marked the graves. “I feel comfort here,” said Khalil Diab Essbiah at the cemetery where his two children are buried. Even with the constant buzzing of Israeli drones overhead, visitors at the cemetery “can feel relieved of the genocide we are in and the death and destruction,” he said.
Hanaa Abu Jazar, 11, also displaced from Rafah to the tent city in Khan Yunis, said: “We see the (Israeli) occupation killing children, women, and the elderly.” She poignantly asked, “How can we celebrate?”