Since the announcement of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza last October, Israeli violations have continued and the toll of dead and wounded has climbed. Yet, that has not stopped residents of the Palestinian enclave — almost entirely devastated by war — from breaking into celebratory wedding cheers that, if only briefly, cut through the buzz of drones and the thunder of airstrikes.
In recent weeks, residents in Khan Younis, Al-Shati refugee camp, Shujaiya and other areas have held public wedding celebrations attended by relatives and neighbors, reviving scenes absent from Gaza throughout more than two years of war.
Alaa Moussa, 33, from the Sheikh Nasser area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, lost her husband in an Israeli strike in mid-2024. She said she married in late April a man four years older than her who had also lost his wife and two children in a strike that hit displaced persons’ tents in the Al-Mawasi area of the same city.
“I accepted only a symbolic dowry of no more than 1,500 Jordanian dinars ($2,100), because it has become insignificant under these difficult circumstances,” Moussa told Asharq Al-Awsat.
She held what she described as a “modest wedding” among the tents of displaced families in Al-Mawasi, where one of the tents has become the couple’s new home.
“The war has not stopped, yet like many others we are searching for moments of joy despite all the pain we have endured and continue to endure in Gaza amid unrelenting attacks,” she remarked.
Moussa, who had no children with her late husband, said she saw no issue in marrying a man with three children “despite some criticism” from relatives and those around her.
“I will raise them as though they were my own,” she added.
‘Social criticism’
Israel has imposed restrictions and a tight blockade on Gaza since the early 1990s, tightening them further after Hamas seized control of the enclave nearly 19 years ago. Unemployment rose from 29.7 percent in 2007 to 45 percent in 2023, the year the war erupted at its close.
Abdullah Farhat, 29, from Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, was among those whose hopes of marriage and starting a family were delayed for years by Gaza’s harsh economic conditions.
Farhat told Asharq Al-Awsat he recently married a woman two years older than him who had lost her husband at the start of the current war.
He said he paid little attention to what he described as “social criticism” over “marrying a widow or the age difference.”
“My convictions did not change, especially after we found mutual acceptance,” he stated.
Return of wedding halls
Months after the ceasefire, wedding gatherings gradually returned in some areas. Youth parties have also resurfaced, and some wedding halls have reopened to customers.
Ayman Muhaysin, 26, from the Shujaiya neighborhood east of Gaza City, who is displaced in a school turned shelter in the Rimal district, held his wedding last month in a wedding hall in his neighborhood.
He said he paid 4,000 shekels (about $1,300) for the venue and a similar amount for a separate gathering for male relatives and friends, in keeping with Gaza traditions in which the groom’s celebration is held one day with male relatives and friends, followed the next day by a reception attended by women inside the hall, while close male relatives from both families gather outside.
Muhaysin works in a shop earning 1,500 shekels a month. After the wedding, he moved into a classroom where he had been living with his four brothers, who relocated to a neighboring classroom to stay with their parents and three sisters.
Muhaysin said he had to borrow heavily to finance the wedding but did not regret it.
“I lost my brother during the war, along with many relatives, but this is life. We are searching for whatever brings joy to our hearts despite the hardships we face,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Exorbitant prices
Dozens of wedding halls built along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast were destroyed by Israeli forces during the war. Some restaurants and investors have since opened new venues west of Gaza City, though many residents consider their prices exorbitant.
Mohammed Ghanem, an owner of a wedding hall in Gaza City, explained that prices are high because of the cost of constructing these halls.
“The lack of electricity, operating private generators and securing fuel for them all add to expenses, in addition to the salaries of male and female employees providing wedding services,” he underlined.
Ghanem said prices were “close to what wedding halls charged before the war,” but noted that the new venues “do not have the same level of amenities and equipment that halls once had.”
Recently, Arab and Islamic charitable organizations have begun sponsoring mass wedding ceremonies in Gaza and providing financial support to newlyweds as part of efforts “to ease the burden on young people, tens of thousands of whom rushed to register for such an opportunity.”
