Families in Gaza once marked Eid al-Adha with early morning visits, shared sacrificial meat, and an annual family photo sent to relatives abroad. During Israel’s years-long genocide, repeated strikes killed large parts of extended families, leaving surviving members to gather in mourning instead of celebration. Eid now begins at condolence tents and continues at hospitals where bodies remain. Displacement and destruction have forced people to live in tents on pavements, with limited privacy and ongoing grief. Rising costs and economic strain compound the loss of cultural rituals, turning Eid into a period of sorrow and survival rather than communal festivity.
"On previous Eid holidays, the Baroud family would set out in the early light of dawn to kick off festivities, driving through the streets of Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, visiting homes of relatives, and sharing the meat of a sacrificial animal among family members. At the end of each holiday, they took an annual family photo a fixed ritual every Eid and shared it with relatives abroad. However, on Eid today, amid Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, Walaa Baroud sits before the last version of that photo, holding it in his hands as the only memory of a time that has passed."
"Of the 22 faces that filled the frame, 13 are now gone. They were killed in successive Israeli strikes targeting the extended family, in which more than 80 members died. While the family once gathered for a single photograph, those who remain now gather in mourning for their brother, Baha Baroud. Baha was killed days ago in an Israeli strike, leaving his relatives with an Eid that begins at a condolence tent for him and continues at the hospital where his body still lies."
"“The war has not stopped devouring our loved ones, and we never expected to open a mourning tent during a truce,” Walaa tells Al Jazeera. “We are trapped between two eras and drowning in painful memories.” Israel's genocide in Gaza has now killed nearly 73,000 people, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Widow Hajja Shama al-Zorbatli lives in a small tent on the pavement, shielded from passersby only by a hanging piece of cloth. She has lost both her husband and her home."
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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