Eid in ruins: Palestinians pray among rubble as Gaza faces deepening humanitarian crisis
6 June 2025, 22:51
Palestinians across the Gaza Strip marked the start of one of Islam's most important holidays with prayers outside destroyed mosques and homes, as Israel's brutal military campaign in the region continued.
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Men and children were forced to hold the traditional Eid al-Adha prayers in the open air because much of the area has been reduced to rubble.
Families also had to make do with what they could scrape together for the three-day feast, as food supplies continue to dwindle due to the blocking of humanitarian aid by the Israeli military.
"This is the worst feast that the Palestinian people have experienced because of the unjust war against the Palestinian people," said Kamel Emran after attending prayers in the southern city of Khan Younis.
"There is no food, no flour, no shelter, no mosques, no homes, no mattresses ... The conditions are very, very harsh."
The Islamic holiday begins on the 10th day of the Islamic lunar month of Dhul-Hijja, during the Hajj season in Saudi Arabia.
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For the second year, Muslims in Gaza were unable to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the traditional pilgrimage.
On Friday, Israel issued a new warning to civilians in northern Gaza as the military prepared to undertake intensive operations in the area.
Benjamin Netanyahu's forces claim rockets were fired toward Israel from that sector.
The war broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and abducting 251 hostages.
They are still holding 56 hostages, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages from Gaza and recovered dozens of bodies.
Since then, Israel has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians in its military campaign, primarily women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The offensive has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced around 90 percent of its population of roughly two million Palestinians.
After blocking all food and aid from entering Gaza for more than two months, Israel began allowing a trickle of supplies for the UN several weeks ago.
But the UN says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because of Israeli military restrictions on movement and because roads designated for UN trucks are unsafe and vulnerable to looters.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome said on Thursday that Gaza’s people are projected to fall into acute food insecurity by September, with nearly 500,000 people experiencing extreme food deprivation, leading to malnutrition and starvation.
"This means the risk of famine is really touching the whole of the Gaza Strip," said Rein Paulsen, director of the FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience, in an interview.
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