DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Last summer, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip celebrated the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha the way it should be: with large family gatherings, shared meat with the less fortunate and new clothes. and gifts for children.
But this year, after eight months of devastating war between Israel and Hamas, many families will eat canned food in suffocating tents. There is hardly any meat or livestock in the local markets, and no money for Christmas treats or presents – just war, hunger and misery, with no end in sight.
“There will be no Eid this year,” said Nadia Hamouda, whose daughter was killed in the war and who fled her home in northern Gaza months ago and is staying in a tent in the central city of Deir al-Balah. “When we hear the call to prayer, we weep for those we have lost and the things we have lost, and what happened to us, and how we used to live.”
Muslims around the world will celebrate the four-day Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, at the beginning of this week. It commemorates Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail, as mentioned in the Quran. In Jewish and Christian traditions, Abraham is called to sacrifice his other son, Isaac.
Gaza was impoverished and isolated even before the war, but people still managed to celebrate by putting up colorful decorations, surprising children with treats and gifts, and buying meat or slaughtering livestock to share with the less fortunate .
“It was a real Eid,” said Hamouda. “Everyone was happy, including the children.”
Now much of Gaza is in ruins and most of the 2.3 million Palestinians have fled their homes. Following Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage, Israel launched a massive air and ground assault.
More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. It has destroyed most of Gaza’s agricultural and food production, leaving people dependent on humanitarian aid held up by Israeli restrictions and ongoing fighting.
United Nations agencies have warned that more than a million people – almost half the population – could experience the highest levels of famine in the coming weeks.
In early May, Egypt closed its border crossing to the city of Rafah in southern Gaza after Israel captured the Palestinian side of it, closing the only route for people to enter or leave the area. This means that virtually no Palestinians from Gaza can make the annual Hajj pilgrimage that precedes Eid.
Ashraf Sahwiel, one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled Gaza City earlier in the war and also lives in a tent, has no idea when or if he will be able to return.
“We don’t even know what happened to our houses, whether we will be able to live in them again or whether it is even possible to rebuild them,” he said.
Abdelsattar al-Batsh said he and his family of seven have not eaten meat since the war began. A kilo of meat costs 200 shekels (about $50). A live sheep, which before the war could be bought for only $200, now costs $1,300 – if it is available at all.
“Today there is only war. No money. No work. Our homes have been destroyed. I have nothing,” al-Batsh said.
Iyad al-Bayouk, owner of a now-closed cattle farm in southern Gaza, said severe shortages of both livestock and feed due to the Israeli blockade have driven up prices. Some local farms have been converted into shelters.
Mohammed Abdel Rahim, who has been sheltering for months in a building in an empty cattle farm in central Gaza, said the farm-turned-shelter was particularly bad in winter, when it smelled of animals and was infested with insects. As the heat hit, the ground dried out, making it more bearable, he said.
Abdelkarim Motawq, another displaced Palestinian from northern Gaza, used to work in the local meat industry, which was doing brisk business in the run-up to the holiday. This year his family can only afford rice and beans.
“I wish I could work again,” he said. ‘It was a busy time for me, taking money home and buying food, clothes, nuts and meat for my children. But today there is nothing left.”
___
Khaled reported from Cairo.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
