A holiday of sadness and blood

The war of extermination did not stop during the Eid holidays. Aircraft targeted the tents of the displaced, ambulance crews, and crowds of worshippers performing the Eid prayer, as part of the Eid al-Fitr rituals that brought people to their senses, including the missing, the displaced, and the dead.

The holiday that was supposed to bring people a temporary halt to the barbaric war machine and the madness of genocide, brought more killing and massacres. The bombing continued as usual, and the sounds of explosions replaced the Eid takbeers. The squares of joy that were supposed to be filled with children’s laughter turned into scenes of terror, destruction, body parts, and blood. A woman, whose grief, loss, and sobbing were captured on camera, said, “Those who visited me on Eid have died.”

Eid is no longer an occasion for joy, but rather a new memory added to the list of sorrows, as family tables have disappeared and been replaced by queues searching for a piece of bread or a sip of water amidst the rubble of homes and houses that have been razed to the ground.

On the streets, the scene was nothing but silence, broken by the wailing of the bereaved and the cries of children searching for their parents amid the rubble. Survivors bore pale faces weighed down by fatigue and fear. Even those who tried to cling to the simple manifestations of Eid had only broken hope for the return of those who had passed away or for an end to this ongoing hell. Their voices were sad, their innermost plea: Save us, O Lord, from this hell.

Eid in Gaza was nothing but a meaningless name, another day of killing and bloodshed, where the war spared no one, leaving no room for life to breathe as people fled from one displacement to another in search of a way out of death. Death is in the south, center, and north, and planes fill the skies of the Strip, dropping their inferno of fire, while people are left homeless and out in the open.

Another Eid has come to Gaza, while people are under bombardment, genocide, and ethnic cleansing attempts. The bombing, killing, and horrific massacres have deliberately and premeditatedly increased, targeting mosques, gatherings of worshippers and displaced persons, ambulances and their crews, tents, and shelters. The crossings have not been opened for aid to enter, and people in Gaza have broken their fast with even half a date. So, the Eid in Gaza was one of blood, pain, and suffering, and people have no power except patience, prayer, and hope.

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Eid is no longer an occasion for joy, but rather a new memory added to the list of sorrows, as family tables have disappeared and been replaced by queues searching for a piece of bread or a sip of water amidst the rubble of homes and houses that have been razed to the ground.