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Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip With a tired voice, Saja arranges her few things inside the tent her boyfriend, Mohammed, has planned for their wedding in just a few days.
There are two thin mattresses instead of a proper bed, a small cooking corner made from wood and cloth, and a makeshift bathroom that Mohammed rebuilt from wood and plastic sheets.
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The couple, Saja al-Masri, 22, and Mohammed Ahliwat, 27, got married last year when their families were displaced. They are still living in a camp in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, forced to be displaced by Israel’s war of destruction on Gaza.
Saja agreed to a small ransom, but even that would be given by Mohammed only gradually.
However, even this “simple beginning” has been very expensive for Mohammed and many young men in Gaza, who are expected to carry a lot of money in Palestinian culture when they marry.
“I bought the tent for 1,500 shekels (about $509), the firewood cost me about 2,500 (about $850), the filter cloths cost more than 2,000 (about $679), and the simple bathroom cost 3,000 (about $1,019),” Mohammed told Al Jazeera. Before the war, houses were already available for rent for between $250 and $300 a month.
“It is not enough for me to start my life in a tent in difficult conditions, even if this is unbearably expensive,” adds Mohammed, who works odd jobs such as selling bread and canned goods or repairing bicycles.
“Everything I get is wasted food and water.”
Before the war, Mohammed lived in a seven-story mansion in Bureij in central Gaza, and had a 170-square-meter house.
“When I remember my house in our house that was destroyed by war, I feel great sadness…
“We were stable, and we had chicken farms that were distributed to several areas in Gaza,” he says sadly. “Today I will get married in a tent.”
As for the wedding venue, Mohammed rented a small house that was used as a cafe, unable to afford a wedding hall.
“My friend helped me rent this small house … for 1,500 shekels ($509),” he says. “It is not a small amount considering the simplicity of the place. Wedding houses cost 8,000 shekels ($2,717).”
Mohammed’s situation is not unusual in Gaza. Many weddings are now held in tents, with the most important preparations, amid the rise in prices and the collapse of life caused by the war and its consequences. financial problems.
Unemployment in Gaza has reached 80 percent, according to the Gaza Ministry of Labor, and poverty has risen to 93 percent.
Inadequate preparation
Saja is crying while listening to her friend.
What should have been the happiest time of her life feels unfulfilled, and she has nothing to offer to ease her worries about Muhammad.
He understands that the problem cannot be helped, and he has tried to remain silent. But the problem of finding an affordable wedding dress confused her.
Clothing dealers charge him exorbitant prices to rent one – more than 2,000 shekels ($679) for one night.
“Everybody says that crossing, freight, and coordination are expensive, so everything costs more,” explains Saja.
In order to solve this, Mohammed brought the right dress from his friend “just to make the wedding”, and put him in what he describes as a “painful decision”.
“When I tried to wear it yesterday, I was so sad… I burst into tears. It was worn out, torn at the edges, and old,” says Saja, her voice breaking.
“I went to bed last night with tears in my cheeks…but there’s nothing we can do. This is what we have.”
He points to waiting for a whole year for the wedding to take place, after it was postponed many times because the preparations were insufficient.
“Every time we say to wait, nothing changes, so we decided to get married next week,” said Saja, who studied photography for a year before the war forced him to quit.
Since then, he has been moved by his family on a long journey that started in Beit Hanoon, in northern Gaza, through Gaza City, and ended in Deir el-Balah.
It’s not just the dress that worries her. The salon charges about 700 shekels ($238) to dress up a bride.
“They tell us cosmetics are too expensive and they are not available, electricity and generators are expensive, fuel is expensive…everything is expensive, and people like us are the ones who pay.”
“What did we do to get this?” He says.
There is no taste of happiness
Saja’s mother, Samira al-Masri, 49, interrupts him calmly, trying to comfort him, saying that things are the same for everyone in Gaza, where many Palestinians have been displaced from homes destroyed by Israel, and more than 72,000 have been killed since October 2023.
“I married my four daughters: Ilham, Doaa, Ameerah, and now Saja, during the war, without happiness,” says Samira, her voice trembling.
“Every marriage is like a disaster for me.”
“They all started their married life the same way…in tents, with nothing.”
Samira expresses her deep sorrow for not being able to properly celebrate her daughters or give them the wedding they longed for.
“As you can see, there aren’t enough clothes, there aren’t enough things for a bride… there isn’t a proper outfit, not even clothes or a bed,” he says, helping Saja organize her few things.
Mohammed adds that bedroom furniture now costs 12,000 to 20,000 shekels ($4,076 and $6,793) – before the war, the sets cost 5,000 shekels.
Amazing prices, and there is no stock on the market.
There are no signs of change
In Gaza, weddings are no longer a happy occasion; it is a painful experience repeated over and over again.
Although she has a natural desire as a mother to celebrate her daughter and give her an honorable start, Samira feels powerless, unable to even ask for more from the groom.
“Things are not good… I can’t force him or ask him what he did or didn’t bring. Everyone knows the situation… we’re all living in it.”
Her concerns extend to her daughters and her 26-year-old son, who is about to get married.
“I put myself and my son in the place of the groom: What does he have? Nothing. In the same situation. Every time I see his problems, I stop planning his wedding.”
In this regard, Samira expresses great sorrow for young men and women who want to get married these days.
“I pray that God will help them… our days were easy…
As her marriage turns from a moment of joy into a serious conflict with reality, Saja tries to hold herself together despite having no real options.
He admits that it is not easy, but the presence of Muhammad next to him gives him strength.
“Sometimes, I think it’s a bad start… but when I see Mohammed with me, I get rid of my sadness,” she says with an innocent smile as she looks at her future husband.
There are few signs that things will change soon for the couple. However, they try to make things work for them and don’t just keep hoping for the best.
Saja said: “I feel that things will be the same, as it was written for us.”
