EGN NEWS DESK
As Eid al-Fitr approached, Amani Abu Awda’s 4 youngsters started asking her for brand spanking new garments and toys — festive objects that Muslims typically purchase to have fun the vacation that marks the top of the holy month of Ramadan.
But the mom of 4 from northern Gaza is now displaced along with her household in a tent within the southern metropolis of Rafah, removed from any sense of festivity and the house that when hosted giant household gatherings.
“Oh God, I couldn’t get something for them due to the excessive costs,” she mentioned Saturday, days earlier than most Muslims worldwide would have fun Eid al-Fitr. “I needed to go attempt to discover used clothes. In regular days, we’d by no means purchase such issues. But I couldn’t even discover any used garments.”
Eid al-Fitr — the three-day celebration starting Wednesday that marks the top of the holy month of Ramadan — was a joyful time in Gaza. But with famine threatening Gaza amid Israel’s persevering with navy offensive, Palestinians there say there’s little to have fun.
Ms. Abu Awda’s household managed to take some garments with them once they fled their dwelling in Jabaliya two months in the past. But at a checkpoint, Israeli troopers made them throw away all the things they have been carrying as they walked alongside a harmful highway the place some Palestinians had disappeared into detention and others have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, she mentioned.
“What form of Eid is that this?” Ms. Abu Awda mentioned, including, “We have misplaced a lot. We have misplaced household and family members. We have misplaced our houses and we’ve misplaced security. The feeling of demise is with us in each second, and the scent of demise is in every single place.”
More than something, Ms. Abu Awda mentioned, they need a cease-fire for Eid.
Much like Ramadan, a month of daylong fasts and spiritual observance, was marked by bittersweet remembrances of the way it was noticed earlier than Israel’s warfare in Gaza, Eid too will probably be characterised by longing comparisons for a way various things have been only a yr in the past.
Before the warfare, malls could be filled with households shopping for new garments for the vacation and sweets to supply all of the family that will come by to go to within the days main as much as Eid.
Now these family are nearly all displaced, packed into small houses with others or sweltering tents manufactured from plastic sheeting.
Many Muslims within the Middle East go to the graves of their family members on Eid. But with so many killed because the warfare started in October and with a lot of them buried in makeshift graves or but to be recovered from below the rubble, holding onto that custom now could be unattainable for many.
The Gaza Ministry of Health says that greater than 33,000 individuals have been killed in Gaza over six months of Israeli bombardment.
In Gaza City, some individuals have strung small lights or paper decorations within the streets. But it has executed little to fight the general grim feeling, mentioned Alina Al-Yazji, a 20-year-old college pupil.
“The streets, as a substitute of smelling like cookies and mamoul and sumaqia and faseekh and all these great smells,” Ms. Al-Yazji mentioned, naming among the conventional candy and savory dishes eaten throughout Eid, “as a substitute, the streets scent of blood and killing and destruction.”
As she spoke, the sound of an Israeli fighter jet roared overhead.
Sitting in her tent in Rafah, Muna Daloob, 50, couldn’t assist however keep in mind previous holidays, earlier than her household fled their dwelling in Gaza City.
She mentioned she isn’t making any Eid cookies or mamoul or faseekh as a result of she doesn’t have cooking gasoline and all of the substances, together with flour and sugar, are too costly or briefly provide.
She held out hope that she may at the least discover — and afford — the smallest of presents to convey a smile to her grandchildren: a lollipop.
For 22-year-old Mohammad Shehada, like different Palestinian males, Eid comes with the expectation to offer financial presents, referred to as a eidiya.
In most Muslim cultures, adults give small eidiyas to youngsters. But Palestinians give the cash to each youngsters and grownup feminine family. Even earlier than the warfare, some Palestinian males in Gaza struggled to afford to offer the eidiya on account of a 17-year land, air and sea blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel and supported by Egypt. Now, in the midst of warfare, the eidiya will probably be all however unattainable for most individuals.
“The cheer of the youngsters gathering round you once you give them a eidiya, we’re not in a position to give it this yr, and we’re going to really feel ashamed,” he mentioned.
Mr. Shehada hoped that some mosques, most of which have turn into shelters for the numerous displaced Gazans, would nonetheless maintain morning Eid prayers. He hoped that he would have the ability to eat faseekh, a fermented fish dish, the only of Eid enjoyments, he mentioned.
“I’ve a variety of hopes for Eid,” he mentioned, “however firstly for them to finish this revolting warfare.”
