Muslims observe Eid al-Adha in the shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza

Muslims around the world are celebrating Eid al-Adha, or the feast of sacrifice, which commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, before God offered a sheep in his place.

As part of the festival, which follows the annual Hajj pilgrimage, worshippers typically slaughter sheep and offer part of the meat to the needy.

This year’s celebration came against the backdrop of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has pushed the Middle East to the brink of a regional conflict.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were not able to celebrate Eid al-Adha the way they had in previous years.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, dozens gathered on Sunday morning near a destroyed mosque to perform Eid prayers. They were surrounded by debris and the rubble of collapsed houses. In the town of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Muslims held their prayers in a school-turned-shelter. Some, including women and children, went to cemeteries to visit the graves of loved ones.

“Today, after the ninth month, more than 37,000 martyrs, more than 87,000 wounded, and hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed,” Abdulhalim Abu Samra, a displaced Palestinian, told The Associated Press news agency after prayers in Khan Younis. “Our people live in difficult circumstances.”

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, also reporting from Deir el-Balah, said Palestinians are trying to cling to a sense of hope. “Palestinians are trying to do their best, despite Israel’s ongoing aggression, to bring happiness to young children, as many of them will wake up today and celebrate Eid without their parents.”

The Government Media Office in Gaza said on Saturday that Israel was barring the entry of sacrificial animals into the enclave, thus preventing Palestinians from performing sacrificial rituals as part of Eid al-Adha.

Meanwhile, at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, 40,000 Muslims performed Eid al-Adha prayers, much less than the estimated 100,000 who attended in 2023. On Sunday, Israeli forces also assaulted worshippers entering the mosque and blocked others from reaching the holy site, the Wafa news agency reported.

In Ramallah in the West Bank, Palestinians also convened for the Eid prayers. “We suffer greatly and live through difficult moments with [what’s happening to] our brothers in Gaza,” said Mahmoud Mohana, a mosque imam.

In Lebanon, where Hezbollah has traded nearly daily attacks with Israel over the war in Gaza, visitors made their way into the Martyrs Cemetery near the Shatila camp for Palestinian refugees in Beirut early on Sunday morning, bearing flowers and jugs of water for the graves of their loved ones, an annual tradition on the first day of Eid.

Officials also extended Eid greetings, with a message of peace.

“I extend my solidarity with all Muslims who, because of conflict, violence & division, will not be able to celebrate with their loved ones,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hoped that the holiday would bring “peace to our spiritual geography, especially Palestine and Sudan”.