Palestinians in Gaza celebrate the first day of Eid al-Adha amid continuous bombardment and human suffering

The people of the Gaza Strip are trying to celebrate Eid al-Adha amid ongoing Israeli bombing, ongoing human suffering, and the specter of famine threatening the areas of the northern Gaza Strip, due to the ongoing war since the seventh of last October, which has caused the death of 37,296 people and the injury of 85,197 people.

Today, Sunday, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation army fire in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. The occupation army also targeted ambulances as they were trying to recover the bodies of martyrs in the neighborhood where several casualties occurred as a result of the bombing.

Yesterday evening, Saturday, rescue crews recovered the bodies of nine martyrs from various areas in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. Medical sources at the European Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis reported the arrival of the bodies of 9 martyrs from different areas in the city of Rafah, which were recovered from homes bombed by the occupation army yesterday and in previous times. Also, 19 citizens were martyred and at least 50 others were injured, in raids by occupation aircraft that targeted 3 homes in the Al-Shuja’iya and Al-Tuffah neighborhoods, east of Gaza City, while the occupation artillery intensified its bombardment of areas west of Rafah.

Amid the continuing bombardment, citizens in Gaza performed Eid al-Adha prayers on Sunday, on the ruins of destroyed homes and on top of the rubble, and visited the graves of the martyrs, amid an atmosphere of sadness. The Eid prayer preachers stressed the necessity of visiting the families of the martyrs, the wounded, and the families, and maintaining family ties, stressing the necessity of bringing joy to the faces of the orphans of the martyrs’ children, and to the children of the wounded and prisoners, according to the Palestinian News Agency, “Wafa.”

Local media circulated pictures of a number of martyrs’ families visiting the shrines of their relatives, reciting Al-Fatihah for their souls, and distributing cakes and sweets to citizens, especially children.

The price of sacrifices increased due to the siege

On the ruins of their homes that Israel destroyed during the war on the Gaza Strip, dozens of Palestinians in different areas of the Gaza Strip began slaughtering sacrifices on the first day of Eid al-Adha, despite the high prices of sacrifices this year in the Gaza Strip due to the siege and the prevention of their entry.

For its part, the government media office in Gaza considered, yesterday, Saturday, that Israel’s ban on bringing in sacrificial animals deprives hundreds of thousands of families in the Strip of the opportunity to commemorate Eid al-Adha and slaughter sacrifices as part of Islamic religious rituals.

He added: "The occupation's prevention of bringing sacrifices into the Gaza Strip reveals the ugliness of the criminal face of the occupation and the American administration towards supporting genocide and depriving our Palestinian people of celebrating Eid Al-Adha." He considered this a "clear violation of human rights and a complete disregard for human and Islamic values."

The siege and human suffering continue

The humanitarian conditions are worsening and the suffering of citizens in the Gaza Strip is increasing, as a result of the occupation forces continuing to close the crossings, stopping the flow of humanitarian aid and medical supplies, and depriving thousands of sick and injured people of traveling abroad to receive treatment. The occupation forces continue to close the Rafah border crossing, after they occupied the Palestinian side of it on May 7, the day after the start of their ground invasion of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

The continued closure of the crossings threatens the return of famine to Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip and its spread to the south and center, after citizens exhausted their remaining food supplies in light of the scarcity of aid. On Friday, medical sources at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip announced the death of a child as a result of malnutrition, dehydration, and a lack of medical supplies, bringing the number of malnutrition victims in the Gaza Strip since the start of the aggression to 40.

In the same context, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) indicated that about 3,000 children suffering from malnutrition are at risk of death due to being denied the necessary treatment as a result of the continued attack on Rafah. The United Nations World Food Program also said: “9 out of every 10 children in the Gaza Strip suffer from acute food poverty.”

Data from the Ministry of Health indicate that the health sector in Gaza has collapsed, and what remains of it serves no more than 15% of those wounded and injured in the aggression, and has become unable to serve those suffering from chronic diseases, and unable to treat epidemic diseases caused by overcrowding in health centers. Sheltering, and the destruction of the sewage system.