“No joy is present. Malakiya Salman, a 57-year-old refugee who is currently residing in a tent in Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip, stated, “We have been robbed of it.”
Like Muslims elsewhere, Gazans celebrate the holiday known as the “feast of the sacrifice” by slaughtering sheep and distributing the meat to those in need.
In celebration, parents would also give their kids new clothes and cash.
However, this year’s Eid is a day of suffering for many due to more than eight months of a catastrophic Israeli onslaught that has leveled most of Gaza, uprooted the majority of the 2.4 million people living in the besieged enclave, and prompted several warnings of impending starvation.
Salman remarked, “I hope the world will put pressure on us to end the war because we are truly dying and our children are broken.”
Her family was forced to flee the remote southern city of Rafah, which was recently the center of combat during Hamas’s offensive on southern Israel on October 7.
Read more: Israel Launches Heavy Assault on Gaza, Tanks Advance in Rafah
In an effort to make it easier to transfer much-needed humanitarian goods to Gazans, the military declared on Sunday morning that there would be a “tactical pause of military activity” along a corridor near Rafah.
Although the Israeli military emphasized that there was “no cessation of hostilities in the southern Gaza Strip,” AFP correspondents reported that there had been no reports of strikes or shells since morning.
Worshippers were able to enjoy a rare moment of peace during the brief pause in fighting on this occasion honoring the prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son before God offered him a sheep in exchange.