Gaza Marks Third Eid Asking: What Joy Remains?

Palestinians wait to receive donated food at a distribution center in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Gaza: Asharq Al Awsat

17:37-27 May 2026 AD ـ 10 Thul-Hijjah 1447 AH

Gaza: Asharq Al Awsat

17:37-27 May 2026 AD ـ 10 Thul-Hijjah 1447 AH

Gaza Marks Third Eid Asking: What Joy Remains?

Palestinians wait to receive donated food at a distribution center in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

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.

Internally displaced Palestinian women attend Eid al-Adha prayer in Gaza City, 27 May 2026. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

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.

Displaced Palestinian children play on a swing at a tent camp during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

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.

People carry bodies identified by mourners as Hamas' military wing commander Mohammad Odeh, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday, and his wife and children, during a funeral, in Gaza City, May 27, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

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.

Israel Tests Nabatieh Defenses, Seeks to Isolate the City in South Lebanon

Smoke rises from Beaufort Castle following strikes, as seen from Marjayoun, southern Lebanon, May 27, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

Beirut: Nazeer Rida

18:02-27 May 2026 AD ـ 10 Thul-Hijjah 1447 AH

Beirut: Nazeer Rida

18:02-27 May 2026 AD ـ 10 Thul-Hijjah 1447 AH

Israel Tests Nabatieh Defenses, Seeks to Isolate the City in South Lebanon

Smoke rises from Beaufort Castle following strikes, as seen from Marjayoun, southern Lebanon, May 27, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

The Israeli army made on Wednesday further incursions around the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh beyond the Israeli-declared "yellow line” while increasing airstrikes up to 20 kilometers from the border and forcing the full evacuation of towns around the city.

The advance followed Israeli threats to expand beyond the yellow line and coincided with what Israel’s Channel 14 described as the widespread, systematic destruction of more than 10,000 buildings in southern Lebanese border villages, about 70% of the structures Israel plans to demolish in the area.

“We are expanding our operations in Lebanon to deepen the scale of the damage we are inflicting on Hezbollah,” Israeli army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said on Wednesday.

Hayat Al-Aqleh embraces her 18-month-old son Ali at Jabal Amel Hospital in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, after he underwent head surgery for injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in the village of Charnay near Tyre. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

New push north of the river

Israeli forces entered eastern Zawtar, a town on the northern bank of the Litani, advancing on its outskirts as they sought to reach the strategic Beaufort Castle east of Nabatieh.

The castle overlooks, from the east, Lebanese towns under Israeli occupation, as well as northern Israeli settlements less than 10 kilometers away. Israel has placed the castle and the towns of Zawtar, Arnoun and Yohmor al-Shaqif within the yellow line, although they lie north of the Litani.

Local sources in southern Lebanon told Asharq Al-Awsat that Israeli forces sent unmanned vehicles deep into an area near Mayfadoun to probe defenses and reconnaissance capabilities.

They said the move pointed to attempts to push toward the hills south of Nabatieh, especially Mayfadoun and Shawkin, to isolate the city, which was placed under a full evacuation warning on Wednesday for a second day in a row.

The sources said airstrikes intensified on Beaufort Castle and nearby Yohmor, Kfar Tebnit and Arnoun, areas overlooking Nabatieh from the east.

The Israeli army gave no details on the fighting.

In a statement sent in response to a question from Agence France Presse and attributed to a military official, the army said it was operating in a targeted manner beyond the forward defense line to eliminate direct threats to the citizens of the State of Israel and to soldiers ... in accordance with directives from the political leadership.

Specific details regarding the locations of soldiers cannot be provided, the official said.

Clashes at point-blank range

In a statement Wednesday, Hezbollah said its fighters "clashed with the enemy forces at point-blank range" with light and medium weapons in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah.

Since dawn on Tuesday, Hezbollah had said it targeted Israeli forces trying to enter the town with rocket-propelled grenades and explosive drones. It later said its fighters fired rockets and drones at Israeli forces on the town’s outskirts and near its entrance by the riverbed.

Al-Manar, Hezbollah’s television channel, said Israeli forces were moving along three axes on the outskirts of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah from the Hamra side. It said clashes were underway at three points, but denied that Israeli forces had advanced toward Mayfadoun or the inner neighborhoods of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah.

The town’s position north of the Litani gives it strategic significance due to its proximity to Nabatieh, southern Lebanon’s largest city. Israel accuses Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire.

Zawtar al-Sharqiyah lies next to the yellow line that the Israeli army drew last month in southern Lebanon. The line runs around 10 kilometers deep inside Lebanese territory and where residents have been warned not to return.

The advance into the town coincided with an Israeli army statement on Tuesday saying it was “operating in a targeted manner beyond the forward defense line to eliminate direct threats to the citizens of the State of Israel and to soldiers.”

Emptying Nabatieh’s surroundings

As it tries to advance, Israel is also working to isolate Nabatieh and its surroundings by expanding the fire-enforced buffer zone to nearly 20 kilometers from the border.

Field sources in southern Lebanon told Asharq Al-Awsat that the line of fire had been cleared to Doueir, where no one can now enter, including ambulances, which need permission from the so-called mechanism - an internationally brokered monitoring committee established to oversee the ceasefire - to access the town.

Civil defense members search for victims in the rubble of a residential building hit the previous day by an Israeli strike near the southern town of Burj al-Shamali, on the outskirts of Tyre, on May 27, 2026.(Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)

The sources said the evacuation sweep covered Doueir, Harouf, Jebchit, Zebdine, Toul, Kfar Jouz, Deir al-Zahrani, Habboush, Kfar Roummane, Mayfadoun and Shawkin. It also included towns north of the river, southwest of Nabatieh, overlooking the Litani’s bank.

The developments came hours after evacuation warnings on Tuesday covered about 50 Lebanese villages and towns, including all towns in the districts of Bint Jbeil, Marjayoun and Tyre, as well as a large part of the Nabatieh district.

The Israeli army carried out about 150 airstrikes on Tuesday, killing 31 people and wounding 40, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The ministry said 14 people were killed in Burj al-Shamali near Tyre.

On Wednesday, the bombing expanded into the Zahrani district, hitting Tafahta, as well as large parts of villages around Nabatieh. Lebanon’s official National News Agency said a strike near Nabih Berri Governmental Hospital caused “major damage to hospital wards.”

Arab World

UN Raises Alarm over Israel's Killings of Gazans Near Armistice Line

People carry bodies identified by mourners as Hamas' military wing commander Mohammad Odeh, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday, and his wife and children, during a funeral, in Gaza City, May 27, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Asharq Al Awsat

16:11-27 May 2026 AD ـ 10 Thul-Hijjah 1447 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

16:11-27 May 2026 AD ـ 10 Thul-Hijjah 1447 AH

UN Raises Alarm over Israel's Killings of Gazans Near Armistice Line

About a third of Palestinians killed by Israel since an October truce were in areas near the military's armistice line with Hamas, raising concerns that troops may be shooting at civilians merely for approaching the area, the UN human rights office said.

The office said such actions would constitute unlawful killings and thus war crimes. Israel's military, which says fire by its troops near the armistice line aims to thwart militant threats, did not immediately provide comment on the allegations.

Israel has demarcated its armistice boundary with Hamas since the truce with a "yellow line" marked on the ground with spaced out concrete blocks. Israeli troops remain deployed to its east, with Hamas in control in a coastal strip of land. But the military has frequently shifted those blocks deeper into Hamas-controlled territory, and Israeli maps show a widened restricted zone of military control now covers nearly two-thirds of Gaza. Israel's expanding zone of control has stirred fears among displaced Palestinians living in tent encampments and bombed out homes near the yellow line that they may be deemed military targets, as the population is squeezed into an even smaller area.

UN SAYS KILLINGS MAY BE UNLAWFUL

The UN data, shared exclusively with Reuters, includes 453 verified killings since the ceasefire through to February 5. Of those, 152 Palestinians - comprising 102 men, 15 women, 24 boys and 11 girls - were near the boundary, it said. "The available information raises serious concerns that the Israeli army is shooting at and killing presumed civilians simply on the basis of their proximity to the so-called yellow line, which would amount to unlawful killings and thus war crimes," said Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory, calling the pattern alarming.

"Civilians do not appear to have posed any risk to the life of the Israeli military, including some cases in which they appear to have been shot while carrying out daily activities or having approached or crossed Israel's so-called yellow line," he said.

The boundary location was often not clear to Palestinians, he added. "Nobody clearly knows exactly where it starts, where it ends, and how it moves, and when it moves." Israeli officials describe the territory they've seized in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon as "buffer zones" that can stave off potential militant attacks following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault that set off the Gaza war. The ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump has failed to halt Israeli attacks in Gaza, and Israel has continued to target Hamas leaders, killing two in the past two weeks. Overall, some 900 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the truce, Gaza health authorities say, without giving a breakdown by location.

Arab World

War and Displacement Rob Beirut of Eid al-Adha Joy

A woman tosses sweets to displaced children at a makeshift camp for displaced people at Beirut's waterfront during Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, in Beirut, Lebanon, 27 May 2026. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH

Beirut: Soubhi Amhaz

15:18-27 May 2026 AD ـ 10 Thul-Hijjah 1447 AH

Beirut: Soubhi Amhaz

15:18-27 May 2026 AD ـ 10 Thul-Hijjah 1447 AH

War and Displacement Rob Beirut of Eid al-Adha Joy

The shape of Eid al-Adha has changed for many Lebanese as the war continues, along with the escalation, warnings, and daily anxiety accompanying it. Security developments resulting from the conflict have disrupted family gatherings that have become increasingly limited, while fear and anxiety continue to deepen despite attempts to preserve what remains of Eid traditions.

Lebanese speak of what resembles a slow “psychological death” caused by the ongoing developments, a feeling not limited to those displaced from the south and Beirut’s southern suburbs, but extending to Lebanese across different regions.

Relentless Fear

Ramia Salman says last Eid al-Adha and this year’s holiday no longer carry the same meanings of joy for many Lebanese, as the atmosphere has become more associated with fear than with the happiness that once accompanied such occasions.

She adds: “Last Eid al-Adha, as with this year’s Eid, the scene felt completely different from what we had known for many years. Holidays were always associated with preparing for family visits, buying Eid necessities, welcoming relatives, and even the small details that gave people a different feeling about the occasion. But what is happening today has greatly changed that feeling.”

She told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Two days before Eid, especially with the escalation witnessed in the western Bekaa, we felt deep fear from the very idea of Eid itself. Instead of waiting for the occasion with joy, we found ourselves simply hoping these days would pass safely. The concern is no longer how we will spend Eid or celebrate it, but how we will get through this phase safely.”

She believes even the traditions of Eid eve have changed noticeably, saying: “Eid night was always a space for joy, movement in the markets, family gatherings, and the feeling that there was an occasion everyone was waiting for. Today the scene has changed dramatically. Gatherings have shifted from meetings tied to joy into gatherings dominated by anxiety, fear, and questions.”

She adds: “Sometimes we feel as though the Israeli army is constantly manipulating our nervous system. The issue is not only related to airstrikes or direct attacks, but to the permanent state of anticipation imposed on people.”

She continues: “Fear and panic are no longer temporary feelings tied to a specific moment. They have become part of daily life. Sometimes we feel we are not just living in fear of a particular event, but enduring a form of continuous internal exhaustion, as if something inside a person is gradually fading away.”

People visit the graves of their loved ones at a local cemetery on Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, in Beirut, Lebanon, 27 May 2026. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH

The Meaning of Eid

For her part, Zeinab Tahmaz says holidays had already begun losing part of their traditions in recent years, but the war accelerated that transformation even further.

She told Asharq Al-Awsat that “since last Eid al-Adha, the atmosphere has been almost nonexistent.” Recalling scenes from last year, she says: “At the time, warnings were issued and we saw how many areas, especially in the southern suburbs, were evacuated. That was proof that people no longer had the desire to go out or even visit their villages.”

She continues: “We had the scent of Eid, the village, our grandfather’s house, and family gatherings. These were things we once took for granted. But this year, even those things have been taken away from us.”

She says: “Sometimes I feel the war is not only taking away our sense of safety or the atmosphere itself, but also our ability to feel things the same way. The things we once waited for with excitement are no longer awaited in the same way.”

Fear Changed Eid Plans

Ali Al-Husseini says the escalation has not only changed the atmosphere of Eid, but also altered personal and family decisions that once seemed settled.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “I had planned to spend Eid with my family in the Bekaa, and the idea was tied to returning, even briefly, to the atmosphere we used to know.” He noted that “the escalation in the days leading up to Eid had the exact opposite psychological effect. Instead of making us think about Eid, it created feelings of fear and anxiety.”

He says: “I decided to remain with my children in our place of displacement in Mount Lebanon out of fear of any new escalation or warnings, and concern that developments could spiral in a way that would prevent me from returning to Beirut for medical treatment.”

A Slow Death

Saeed Shehab believes the war has not only stripped people of the details of Eid, but also forced them to reconsider even the things that once seemed self-evident.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Under these circumstances, Eid itself feels absent, whether there is a warning or not,” adding: “People have started clinging to the simplest things and saying thank God they still have a house they can sit in, a house that has not been destroyed and where they are still able to remain.”

He continues: “Beyond the feeling that you have already been deprived of many things, you hear reports about the possibility that the area where you are staying could be targeted, and you feel that even the last sense of safety you cling to could be taken away from you.”

He says: “You can lose your hometown, lose people and details that once meant something to you, and then feel that even the house giving you some reassurance could also become threatened.”

He adds: “The problem is not only what is happening outside, but what remains inside a person. A person does not only lose a house or a place, but sometimes feels they are losing part of themselves as well. There is sorrow that remains inside them, and psychological exhaustion that accumulates, as though over time you are living through a kind of slow death of the feelings and things that once gave you hope or a sense of life.”

Gaza Marks Third Eid Asking: What Joy Remains?

Gaza Marks Third Eid Asking: What Joy Remains?

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