For the third year in a row, Gaza residents marked Eid al-Adha with the same bitter question, “In what state have you returned, Eid?”
Joy was again absent from the Gaza Strip, replaced by fear over the security situation, assassinations, and Israeli escalation, as fighter jets flew heavily overhead and carried out strikes.
That mood shaped the first day of Eid al-Adha on Wednesday. Residents moved cautiously, and family visits were limited by fears of renewed Israeli bombardment, which had intensified on Tuesday, the Day of Arafat, killing more than 15 Palestinians.
The latest developments overshadowed the third consecutive Eid to pass under harsh conditions in Gaza, amid war and continued escalation following the ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10, 2025.
Remote greetings
Nabil Tareq, 41, a Gaza resident from the Jabalia refugee camp in the north, who is displaced west of Gaza City, settled for calling his sister and cousins to greet them on Eid al-Adha.
He had decided not to travel to the central Gaza Strip because of the security situation and the sudden Israeli strikes Gaza has seen in recent days.
Tareq told Asharq Al-Awsat that he only visited his brothers and relatives in western Gaza. The visit was brief, he said, so he could return to the tent where he is displaced and remain with his family, fearing for his life and theirs.
He said the security situation and the transport crisis kept him from visiting relatives in more distant areas.
Trying to adapt
Sama Hamdan, 23, from Gaza City and displaced to Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, traveled to her hometown in a rundown vehicle to see her uncles and greet them for Eid.
She was accompanied by her young brothers, who had been longing to play with their cousins.
Hamdan said she made the trip to ease the burden on her uncles, especially the elderly, amid Gaza’s harsh conditions, particularly the shortage of transport and high fares.
“Our lives have changed since the war, and no longer have meaning. All the conditions are discouraging and impose a state of despair on us, but we are trying to adapt to the new reality as much as possible despite the ongoing war by the occupation, which has not stopped bombing and destroying despite claims that there is a truce in Gaza,” Hamdan said.
An ongoing war
In a vehicle carrying several Gazans from the Rimal neighborhood to Sheikh Radwan in northern Gaza City, residents spoke of Israeli bombardment, the targeting of homes and the return of assassinations.
Saed Abu Safiya, 23, who started the conversation in the vehicle where Asharq Al-Awsat’s correspondent was present, said Israel would not halt its raids until Palestinian factions surrendered their weapons.
Salman Abu Khuwayter, a Gaza resident from Jabalia who is displaced in Sheikh Radwan, disagreed. He said the war would not stop even if Hamas and the factions handed over their weapons.
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel aimed to displace Gaza’s population, pressure the factions and strip them not only of their weapons, but also eliminate all their members or move them out of the enclave.
Funerals on Eid
As family visits remained limited across Gaza, Palestinian families buried relatives killed in a series of strikes on Tuesday.
About 15 people were killed, including Mohammad Odeh, a commander in the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, his wife and three members of his family.
Grief marked the funerals held across southern, central and northern Gaza. Crowds joined processions that set out from different hospitals across the enclave.
At Odeh’s funeral, mourners chanted angry slogans demanding revenge for him and for all those killed in the escalating Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The number of Palestinian victims since the ceasefire has risen to more than 910.
The first day of Eid al-Adha was not quiet. Drones, warplanes, and helicopters kept flying over different parts of the enclave.
Explosions were heard in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and were later found to have been caused by mock raids off the city’s coast.
Shortly before Wednesday afternoon, a drone struck three Palestinians, wounding them. One injury was described as serious.
