Gaza marks the start of Eid with outdoor prayers in the rubble and food growing ever scarcer

DEIR AL-BALAH Gaza Strip AP Palestinians across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip marked the start of one of Islam s bulk crucial 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 women 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 explained 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 th day of the Islamic lunar month of Dhul-Hijja during the Hajj season in Saudi Arabia For the second year Muslims in Gaza were not able to trip to Saudi Arabia to perform the traditional pilgrimage In Gaza City on Friday Sanaa Al-Ghola a displaced woman from Shejaiyah stood in the rubble of a badly damaged graveyard near a partially collapsed mosque She had come to pray for her son Mohamed al-Ghoul who she commented was killed in shelling last month after going to his grandfather s house to get flour His father was wounded in the attack We lost our home money and everything she declared crying as she held her son s photo There is no more Eid after you re gone my son Families at a displacement tent camp in Muwasi faced a grim first day of Eid al-Adha Tahrir Abu Jazar of Rafah warmed up leftover lentils and cooked rice inside her tent but declared she had no bread to feed her five children who sat on the bare ground nearby There are no Eid celebrations now as there is no new clothes or sacrificial meat or monetary gifts or elation she disclosed reminiscing over Eid days before the war when the children had meat My son went out and tried to celebrate Eid and was scared of the warplane so he came back Israel issues a new warning In the southern city of Rafah nine people were killed on their way to try and collect humanitarian aid at various distribution points according to leaders at Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis where the bodies were brought Eight died from gunshot wounds and the ninth person from shrapnel injuries The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the hospital s claim but noted it was looking into the analysis 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 U N reported The Associated Press that reports of violence in Rafah were inaccurate and that aid distribution was completed peacefully and without situation In northern Gaza on Friday Israel issued a new warning to civilians saying the military was about to undertake intensive operations in an area after it revealed rockets were fired toward Israel from the sector Meanwhile the military commented four Israeli soldiers were killed Friday in southern Gaza when an explosive detonated as they searched a Hamas compound in Khan Younis causing part of a building to collapse Five soldiers were injured one seriously spokesperson Effie Defrin mentioned The war broke out on Oct when Hamas-led militants launched a surprise attack on Israel killing selected people mostly civilians and abducted hostages They are still holding hostages around a third of them inferred to be alive after the greater part of the rest were disclosed 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 Palestinians in its military campaign primarily women and children according to the Gaza Strength Ministry which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures The offensive has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced around of its population of roughly million Palestinians UN warns of threat of famine After blocking all food and aid from entering Gaza for more than two months Israel began allowing a trickle of supplies to enter for the U N several weeks ago But the U N says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because of Israeli military restrictions on movements and because roads that the military designates for its trucks to use are unsafe and vulnerable to looters The U N s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome announced Thursday that Gaza s people are projected to fall into acute food insecurity by September with nearly people experiencing extreme food deprivation leading to malnutrition and starvation This means the exposure of famine is really touching the whole of the Gaza Strip Rein Paulson director of the FAO office of emergencies and resilience stated in an interview Over the past two weeks shootings have erupted nearly daily in the Gaza Strip in the vicinity of new hubs where desperate Palestinians are being directed to collect food Spectators say nearby Israeli troops have opened fire and more than people have been killed according to Gaza hospital executives Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid and trying to block it from reaching Palestinians and has revealed soldiers fired warning shots or in particular cases shot at individuals approaching its troops The GHF sent out a message on its Facebook site early Friday that it had closed all aid distribution sites until further notice and urged people to stay away for their own safety It later clarified that the measure was only a temporary pause due to excessive crowding and that the agency had distributed all aid available Friday Israel s military explained that going ahead distribution sites would be operated from a m to p m daily and that outside those hours the areas would be considered closed military zones that are strictly off limits US consulting firm lets go of two of its partners A leading U S management-consulting firm the Boston Consulting Group commented Friday it had let go of two of the firm s partners over what it stated was their unauthorized work for the GHF s food distribution in Gaza In a comment the firm explained the two partners failed to adequately disclose the nature of the work on the effort The partners whom the message did not identify have been exited from the firm the consulting group reported It announced the firm s probe of the matter was ongoing