In the southern city of Khan Younis, dozens gathered on Sunday morning near a destroyed mosque to perform Eid prayers. They were surrounded by debris and the rubble of collapsed houses. In the town of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Muslims held their prayers in a school-turned-shelter. Some, including women and children, went to cemeteries to visit the graves of loved ones.
“Today, after the ninth month, more than 37,000 martyrs, more than 87,000 wounded, and hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed,” Abdulhalim Abu Samra, a displaced Palestinian, told The news agency after prayers in Khan Younis. “Our live in difficult circumstances.”
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, also reporting from Deir el-Balah, said Palestinians are trying to cling to a sense of hope. “Palestinians are trying to do their best, despite Israel’s ongoing aggression, to bring happiness to young children, as many of them will wake up today and celebrate Eid without their parents.”
The Government Media Office in Gaza said on Saturday that Israel was barring the entry of sacrificial animals into the enclave, thus preventing Palestinians from performing sacrificial rituals as part of Eid al-Adha.
Meanwhile, at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, 40,000 Muslims performed Eid al-Adha prayers, much less than the estimated 100,000 who attended in 2023. On Sunday, Israeli forces also assaulted worshippers entering the mosque and blocked others from reaching the holy site, the Wafa news agency reported.
In Ramallah in the West Bank, Palestinians also convened for the Eid prayers. “We suffer greatly and live through difficult moments with [what’s happening to] our brothers in Gaza,” said Mahmoud Mohana, a mosque imam.
