War-ravaged Gaza marks Eid ul Adha amid destruction, hope

GAZA: Palestinians in the devastated Gaza Strip marked the start of Eid ul Adha on Saturday by offering Eid prayers outside destroyed mosques and homes, clinging to the hope that the ongoing war with Israel will soon end.

Already facing severe shortages of food and essentials, men, women, and children were compelled to perform the traditional Eid prayers in open spaces surrounded by debris of establishment destroyed in Israeli strikes.

With much of the Gaza region reduced to rubble, the people are forced to gather at open spaces and do whatever they could for the three-day festive feast.

Kamil Imran, a native speaking after prayers in the southern city of Khan Younis, described it as the harshest Eid experienced due to the unjust war against the Palestinian people.

“There’s no food, no flour, no shelter, no mosques, no homes, no mattresses… conditions are extremely tough,” Kamil Imran lamented.

Muslims in Gaza were unable to make the Hajj jounrey to Saudi Arabia for the second year in a row.

Sana Al-Ghoul, a displaced mother, prayed for her son, Mohammad Al-Ghoul, in Gaza City while standing amidst the rubble of a partially destroyed cemetery close to a destroyed mosque.

She recounted that her son was killed by shelling while he was getting wheat from his grandfather’s house last month. Sana Al-Ghoul said that her another relative was also hurt in the attack.