Here in Gaza, this year’s Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday was unlike previous feasts.
All you needed to do was to look at the empty streets. But also you could see that the people of Gaza did not have sheep to slaughter as a sacrificial rite, since the war-torn enclave is already on the brink of famine with extreme shortages of meat and other food. The Israeli military sealed off Gaza’s crossings, especially the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha during the Hajj pilgrimage. They slaughter sheep, cows and other animals and distribute meat to the poor, and follow Prophet Ibrahim’s footsteps when his faith was tested after God commanded him to sacrifice his only son Ismail. Ibrahim was prepared to submit to the command, but then God stayed his hand, sparing his son. God provided Ibrhaim with a sheep to slaughter. In the Christian and Jewish version of the story, Abraham is ordered to kill his other son, Isaac.
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The Eid al-Adha started on Sunday. But Gaza’s children were not able to celebrate. Most of them live in tents across the strip since the Israeli military destroyed their homes over the course of the war. Children could not wear new clothes or celebrate in the streets, as they are accustomed to every Eid.
Non-stop bombing
The Israeli military chose not to pause its relentless bombardment during the four-day Eid holiday.
In the first day alone, the military carried out three massacres against Gaza families. At least 41 people were killed and 10 others were injured, according to the strip’s Health Ministry.
This is just the latest bloodshed in a war that began on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched a complex cross-border attack on southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages. Since then, Israel has waged a massive air, naval and land campaign of bombardment, killing more than 37,000 Palestinians, with the war also pushing the Palestinian enclave to the brink of famine with little aid allowed to be delivered to the starved population.
There is no safe place to live and celebrate.
More than 80% of Gaza’s population has been displaced, mostly not to the southern city of Rafah where Israel began a ground offensive despite global warnings. Gaza’s people live in tragic humanitarian conditions. Most of the population are unable to secure basic necessities, including food, for their families. The United Nations has warned that many families suffer from a catastrophic level of hunger and famine-like conditions. And nothing has changed, no exceptions, for Eid.
No joy, no celebration, no Eid
Jamila al-Habbash, 30, used to go out on the first day of Eid al-Adha with her sisters and friends. But she was deprived of the simplest Eid rituals amid Israel’s relentless war.
“This Eid, we were unable to enjoy the Eid prayers, and slaughter of sheep,” said the 30-year-old woman whose leg had been amputated when Israel bombed their homes in Gaza city in the 2008 war. “That’s because of the closure of all crossings.”
She said Eid days in Gaza used to be “beautiful,” and bring joy to all people. “It’s a time of family gatherings.”
But this year “we celebrate between the rubble of destroyed homes, and there is no safe place to live and celebrate,” she said.
Rizq Hammad, a young Palestinian who lost his father during this war, said this Eid was a sad one. “This war has stolen our Eid and our loved ones,” he said. “I missed my father on the first day of Eid..”
Hammad’s father was killed in an Israeli missile attack last month that hit close to the Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
Most difficult Eid ever
Mahmoud al-Braim did not perform the Eid prayer near his house in Khan Yunis as he used to do in the past years. The man is one of hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Gaza. He has sheltered in a tent.
He described the first day of Eid al-Adha as “the most difficult in his life,” because of his inability to slaughter a sheep as a sacrifice, or to spend the Eid inside his house, which was destroyed by the Israeli military during its invasion of the city in December.
My dream was to spend Eid in my home.
Al-Barim was displaced from his home east of Khan Yunis in November. He built a tent in the Mawasi area, west of the city. He has yet been able to return to his home because of the war and the massive destruction the Israeli military left behind.
“My dream was to spend it in my home, slaughter the sacrifice, and bring joy to the hearts of my household,” he explained. “But this war stole joy, love, and now Eid.”
