Islam’s holiest day is marred by grief and peril as Gaza marks Eid al-Adha

Under the damaged dome of al-Albani Mosque in Khan Younis, families stood, some barefoot, on broken stone and dust, raising their voices in takbir to mark the first morning of Eid al-Adha on Friday.

In Gaza, the holiest of the two major Muslim holidays is traditionally a time for communal worship, the sacrifice of lambs, and shared meals. Families gather around piles of bread baked on the saj and morsels of liver fresh from the slaughter.

But this year in Khan Younis, there was no feast. No lambs to sacrifice. No smell of meat cooking, no joyful reunions. The celebration, stripped of its customs, pressed on in grief.

“We don’t eat meat, we don’t eat liver, we are not happy like other times waiting for the Eid with joy,” Eftarag Abou Sabaa told NBC News’ team in Khan Younis.

Rather than the ritual sacrifice of a lamb, Abou Sabaa said, “We sacrifice the blood of martyrs. We sacrifice our sons, our daughters, and our mothers; we sacrifice ourselves in a way that sets us apart from other people.”

That morning, crowds moved quietly to the Khan Younis cemetery to visit loved ones lost to the war, and greeted each other by the tombstones of children, parents, and friends.

Only the buzz of Israeli drones overhead filled the solemn silence.

“This is not an Eid of joy; it is an Eid of mourning and death,” Ahmed Darwish, displaced from Rafah to west Khan Younis, told NBC News as he stood beside the graves. “Our children and women are in pieces. Instead of sacrificing animals, we collected body parts this morning.”

On Eid, Israeli strikes continued as families wept by the bodies of their loved ones, killed before celebrations could begin.

Reda Abdel Rahim Eljara told an NBC News team that Israeli air strikes had already killed her husband and one of her sons. On the first day of Eid al-Adha, she lost two more sons and her daughter-in-law.

“Three months ago, on Eid al-Fitr, my son Qais got married,” she told NBC News. “Today, on the main Eid, he is martyred with his wife.”

Umm Ahmad Al-Qatati said her son, Omar, 11, was shot as he left his tent to shower and get ready for a visit to see his father.

“He was so excited for Eid morning, but they sent him to the morgue instead,” she said. “Instead of celebrating Eid, he went to be with his Lord.”

The airstrikes continued into Saturday, the second day of Eid al-Adha, with at least 33 killed in Gaza, most of them in Khan Younis, Dr. Marwan al-Hamas, director of field hospitals, told NBC News.

Those for whom death had not come, trudged forward.

At the ruins of al-Albani Mosque, Thaer al-Salmi, 14, continued to pray.

“We try to find some joy by praying and wearing a few clothes to feel the Eid spirit,” he told NBC News. “I hope this war ends, and that next Eid will be like it was two years ago — a real celebration without war.”