Amid the Rubble, Gaza Marks the Start of Eid

Palestinians across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip marked the start of one of Islam's most important holidays with prayers outside destroyed mosques and homes early Friday, with little hope the war with Israel will end soon. With much of Gaza in rubble, men and children were forced to hold the traditional Eid al-Adha prayers in the open air, and with food supplies dwindling, families were having to make do with what they could scrape together for the three-day feast. "This is the worst feast that the Palestinian people have experienced because of the unjust war against the Palestinian people," said one local 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. For the second year, Muslims in Gaza weren't able to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the traditional pilgrimage. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a newly formed group of mainly American contractors that Israel wants to use to replace humanitarian groups in Gaza that distribute aid in coordination with the UN, said Friday that all its distribution centers were closed for the day due to the ongoing violence, reports the AP. It urged people to stay away for their own safety and said it would make an announcement later as to when they would resume distributing humanitarian aid.

The UN says it has been unable to distribute much of the trickle of aid Israel began letting in due to Israeli military restrictions on movements, and because roads that the military designates for its trucks to use are unsafe and vulnerable to looters. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome said 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.