The Electronic Intifada 4 June 2025
A man performs Eid al-Adha prayer among the rubble of al-Yaqeen Mosque, which was destroyed in an Israeli attack, in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip, June 2024.
APA imagesEvery Eid al-Adha, Ayman Shallah, 49, would attend the Eid prayer in the mosque near his house in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.
Eid al-Adha is the second major festival in Islam, and it begins on 6 June this year, following Eid al-Fitr, which was marked this year in March.
The holiday lasts for several days and commemorates Muslims’ obedience and submission to Allah, as well as the Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son. A ritual sacrifice of an animal – typically a cow, sheep or goat – is performed after the prayer.
The days are filled with family gatherings, acts of giving and acts of worship – one of the most significant being the Eid prayer, where communities gather to praise Allah and give thanks for his blessings.
“After performing the Eid prayer, I would go to the slaughterhouse with my children and some neighbors to watch the sacrifice,” Shallah told The Electronic Intifada.
Shallah was a laborer in the occupied Palestinian territories and worked hard to earn the money needed for the sacrifice.
He would then visit his parents, brothers and sisters. Shallah said that this was his favorite moment of Eid, when the whole family gathered at one table and feasted.
Yet during Eid al-Adha in 2024, Shallah was displaced with his parents and brother to a house in Shujaiya, near his home that Israel had bombed in December 2023.
Shallah performed the Eid prayer at the house and didn’t visit any relatives or friends, afraid he would be targeted by the Israeli army, which, he said, “targets anyone, anywhere.”
He did not go to the market to shop for food, sweets or even new clothes – there was nothing to buy, and anything available would have cost a fortune.
“I received two kilograms of meat from a friend,” Shallah said. “I was one of the few who ate meat during that Eid.”
Worst Eid
“This year’s Eid is the worst Eid of my life,” Shallah told The Electronic Intifada.
After Israel broke the ceasefire in March, Shallah and his family were in their temporary home in Shujaiya when Israel bombed the house next to them on 3 April.
Shallah was injured in his left thigh, and his daughter Doha, 20, in her left leg. Both sustained fractures.
His 16-year-old son Muhammad had a skull injury.
But Safa, his wife, did not survive.
At the time, Abdul Rahman – Shallah’s eldest son – was visiting his aunt in Deir al-Balah, southern Gaza.
“I woke up to the news that Israel was targeting a house near ours,” Abdul Rahman told The Electronic Intifada.
Abdul Rahman rushed back to northern Gaza to check on his family, only to find them at Al Ahli Arab Hospital.
“My mother was a martyr,” Abdul Rahman said. “My father and young siblings were all injured.”
Shallah and his injured children were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah as they could not find the proper treatment for their injuries in the north.
Shallah remained with his son and daughter in the hospital for two weeks, until their conditions improved.
He thinks he won’t be able to perform Eid prayers in the mosque this Eid because of the injury in his left thigh.
“Meat is nonexistent in the market. I do not think we are going to receive any this Eid,” Shallah said. “It has been more than two months since I ate meat.”
On this Eid, Shallah and his family are going to share a meal of lentils and one piece of bread per person – just like on other days in this genocide.
“This is the first Eid without my wife,” Shallah said. “I don’t need food – I just want this genocide to end so I don’t lose any beloved person.”
No flour, no meat
After performing the Eid prayer in the mosque, Muhammad al-Ghoz, 29, would visit his parents and brothers, and together they would go to the slaughterhouse to sacrifice the cow they had purchased.
Al-Ghoz, his father and his three brothers shared the cost of the cow, with a 200-kilogram calf costing around $1,700, he said.
They would then return home and cut the meat into one-kilogram portions to distribute among people in need in their neighborhood such as orphans and impoverished families.
“It was an Eid full of happiness and food,” he said.
In October 2023, after the genocide erupted in the Gaza Strip, al-Ghoz was displaced to a tent in Deir al-Balah with his wife and his son Rakan. He now works as a freelance Arabic-language teacher.
On 16 June 2024, the first day of Eid al-Adha, al-Ghoz spent two hours wavering about whether to perform the Eid prayer at the mosque or not.
“When I heard the call to prayer, I decided to go despite the circumstances,” he told The Electronic Intifada, noting, “I thought I would die while I was praying.”
Two days before Eid al-Adha, a friend living abroad sent al-Ghoz money to buy a lamb for sacrifice. The lamb cost al-Ghoz more than $2,000 – and it weighed only 30 kilograms. After performing the Eid prayer, al-Ghoz sacrificed his lamb and donated the meat to people in need.
On 2 March, Israel halted all humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip.
Al-Ghoz can barely afford flour, with one kilogram now costing more than $40.
“If I managed to get meat, I wouldn’t find anything to cook with it,” he said.
During the interview, al-Ghoz said it was his fourth day without eating a single piece of bread.
Al-Ghoz’s family are still in northern Gaza, but they are displaced across different areas.
“Transportation to see my family will cost around $70,” al-Ghoz said. “I would rather buy some flour to feed my son Rakan.”
Eid outside Gaza
Muhammad Obaid, 27, used to live in Gaza City’s central al-Rimal neighborhood.
He would go with his friends the night before Eid al-Adha and shop for sweets and new clothes at al-Rimal markets.
The next morning, Obaid would perform the Eid prayer in the mosque near his house and accompany his father to sacrifice the cow they had bought.
Then they would cut the meat into portions to give to relatives and friends during their visits, and distribute the rest to people in need in their neighborhood.
In June 2023, Obaid traveled to Germany to pursue a job opportunity as a doctor.
During the 2024 Eid al-Adha, Obaid performed the Eid prayer with the local Muslim community.
“After the prayer, the imam prayed for people in Gaza,” he told The Electronic Intifada.
Many people, he said, were raising the Palestinian flag and kuffiyeh, the traditional Palestinian checkered scarf.
But after Obaid finished the Eid prayer, there was nothing to do.
“There is no Eid without my family,” Obaid said. “All the traditions are lost.”
“I tried to call my family, but there were no signals.”
Obaid has tried to stay in touch with his family since this genocide erupted but has faced difficulty since Israel first cut off internet communications in the Strip on 27 October 2023.
Obaid was finally able to call his family and check on them in the evening.
But he felt ashamed to offer Eid greetings – his family was displaced in a tent in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, and facing famine.
“I couldn’t have a joyful Eid because I don’t have acquaintances in Germany,” Obaid told The Electronic Intifada. “But I couldn’t say that to my parents who were struggling to get food supplies.”
Obaid’s father told him that they had made pizza with the canned meat to “bring some joy for children amid this genocide.”
Obaid’s mother wanted to cook sumaghiya – a traditional Palestinian stew made with beef and chickpeas – but she couldn’t because she didn’t find the ingredients in the market.
This year, Obaid’s family returned to northern Gaza after the January ceasefire, but they remain displaced in al-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, having lost their home in the genocide.
For his family, this Eid al-Adha is worse not only because meat is nonexistent, but also because flour – if available – is sold at an unimaginable price.
For more than 19 months, Obaid’s family, he said, “won’t be able to eat the food they like” – not even on Eid.
“There is no one from Gaza who can continue life normally,” Obaid said. “Even if we leave Gaza, Gaza will never leave us.”
Khaled Al-Qershali is an English graduate working as a journalist in Gaza.
