Home and house lie in ruins, there is hardly any food on the markets and even less money for presents. The prayer is held outside destroyed mosques and the festive meals become a scrape together of what can be found.
This is the worst holiday the Palestinian people have experienced, says Kamel Emran in Khan Yunis to the news agency AP.
There is no food, no flour, no protection, no mosques, no homes, no mattresses... The situation is very, very difficult.
Id al-adha occurs on the tenth day of the pilgrimage month and is celebrated for four days, starting on the last day of the pilgrimage to Mecca. The holiday is called "the big feast", distinct from "the small feast" id al-fitr.
Traditionally, Muslims slaughter a sheep or a cow and give away parts of the meat to the poor, as a charitable gesture. Then a big family party is held with food and sweets. The children receive presents and new clothes.
Now, fresh meat has not entered the Gaza Strip for three months – and most of the domestically bred livestock that previously existed have died as a result of 20 months of Israeli bombing. What little is left, very few can afford.
I can not even buy bread. No meat, no vegetables. The prices are astronomical, says the Palestinian Abd al-Rahman Madi to AP.
Rasha Abu Souleyma recently returned to her razed house in Rafah and found a few belongings that survived: clothes, pink sunglasses and a bracelet. It had to be her daughters' id-presents.
I can not buy them clothes or anything, she says.
