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Gaza, Palestine – During the previous Eid holiday, Baroud’s family got up early to start the festivities, driving through the streets of the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, visiting relatives’ homes, and sharing the meat of the sacrificed animal among relatives.
At the end of each holiday, he took an annual family photo – a regular ritual every Eid – and shared it with relatives abroad.
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However, on Eid today, in the midst of Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, Walaa Baroud is sitting in front of the last picture of the painting, holding it in his hands as the only memory of the time that has passed.
Of the 22 faces that filled the frame, 13 are now gone. They were killed in a series of Israeli attacks targeting their families, in which more than 80 people died.
As the family gathers to take one picture, those who are left now gather to mourn their brother, Baha Baroud.
Baha was killed a few days ago in an Israeli protest, leaving his family with an Eid that starts in the mourning tent for him and continues to the hospital where his body is still.
“War has not stopped eating our loved ones, and we did not expect to open a funeral tent during peacetime,” Walaa tells Al Jazeera. “We are trapped between two years and drowning in painful memories.”
Israel’s massacre in Gaza has now killed nearly 73,000 people, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
‘Great loss and sadness’
Widow Hajja Shama al-Zorbatli lives in a small tent on the ground, shielded from passers-by by a hanging cloth.
Her husband has lost both his home. When asked about his Eid routine, he looks like he’s hearing the question for the first time. “Eid does not go into tents,” he told Al Jazeera.
Inside his tent there is no electricity, telephone, television or internet – he is so locked up that he does not know the day or the event.
When he saw a glimpse of the pilgrims in Mecca, he couldn’t hold back his tears.
“I have not entered the house of God. My goal is to perform Hajj,” he said. “But what kind of Hajj is this when I can’t even get food to eat?”
Al-Zorbatli, who is in his 70s, remembers the details of his Eid in the Shujayea neighborhood of Gaza City, when he went to the market to buy clothes for his grandchildren, bring sweets and make Eid cakes.
Today, however, he explains that it is “the Eid of the martyrs, passed without joy and with great loss and sorrow”.
She points to her worn out shoes, then picks up her threadbare dress. “I have nothing but the other. I wash this one, then I wear the other,” said al-Zorbatli.
‘War has broken us’
In a tent next to him, an elderly Palestinian, Mohammed Obeid, celebrates Eid alone in his tent, after the war destroyed his wife, his legs and his house in Shujayea.
Obeid, an amputee burdened by old age and disease, lives in a wheelchair; he fills his time by reading the Quran.
He said: “I was honored.”
But after the war, everything changed. His wife was killed, his legs were amputated and the tent became the last place he thought he would end up.
“Eid today is like any other day; nothing different,” Obeid said. “The war has destroyed us, I was killing animals for sacrifice and distributing the meat to the neighbors of Shujayea.
There is no sacrifice this Eid
The transition from slaughter to non-existence in Gaza is not just a matter of fact. It shows the near collapse of the entire system that once relied heavily on charities and religions.
Karam Khaled, the animal sacrifice coordinator at the Ru’ya charity foundation, told Al Jazeera that this year’s sacrifice season in Gaza is over – amid the closure of crossings, a lack of livestock and unprecedented price increases.
He said that before the war, the base killed between 300 and 400 cattle and sheep every season. The number dropped sharply after the war began, before it ended this year.
The price of one sheep in the general market has risen between $4,500 and $6,000 – compared to about $350 before the war, Khaled said. “Traditional sacrifice has become financially unfeasible for organizations and individuals,” he added.
Khaled said that the closure of transit routes and restrictions on the transfer of money from abroad have made the situation difficult and disrupted a large part of the services provided in connection with the sacrifices.
Cold meat
The base is said to have changed suddenly: to distribute dead meat instead of sacrificial animals, although the price is high.
Ru’ya has donated about 10 tons (10,000kg) of frozen meat to be distributed during Eid to alleviate the absence of the traditional sacrifice.
Shopping patterns have changed dramatically towards frozen and chilled meat, as live meat goes out of reach for many families.
Mohammed al-Najjar, a meat trader, explains that about 80 percent of the cold meat in the Gaza markets comes from Israel, mainly from Argentina or Uruguay. The remaining 20 percent comes in from Egypt as large bales – sometimes up to 5kg (11 pounds) – mostly from Brazil, al-Najjar said.
Live animals are almost out of stock in the market, he added, revealing that the price of one kilogram of lamb has reached about 300 shekels ($105), forcing many organizations to turn to frozen meat instead.
Preparation is reduced
They are also seen in the shops and markets of Gaza, where the preparation for Eid is less than before.
On a tour of Gaza’s main shopping streets, stalls and shops display clothes, toys and sweets – but the buyers are few. With unemployment rife and money scarce, many families are scrambling to make ends meet.
“Bringing goods to the Gaza Strip has become very expensive, which has been directly reflected in the prices of clothes in the markets,” said Amjad Akram, a businessman who owns a children’s clothing store in the Remal area.
Shipping costs have increased by almost eight times from what they were before the war, Akram also said that shipping one box of clothes cost 250 shekels ($88).
Today, it is about 2,000 shekels ($705), he revealed, driving the sales prices in local markets.
Price shock
Akram points out that the purchasing power of citizens has decreased significantly, as priorities have shifted to getting food and necessities, before buying new clothes.
He said that this Eid season is not the same as the previous one, customers come to ask about the prices, then leave suddenly without buying.
Apart from the sound of takbirs (calls to prayer) from refugee camps, or cars traveling through the streets of the city with loudspeakers, the first Eid al-Adha since October “leave the fire” in Gaza is going without celebrations.
Beyond that, the people are mired in abject poverty and constant loss, struggling to piece together the broken lives that Israel destroyed in two years.
