GAZA, (PIC)
The days are no longer the same, nor is anything that resembles itself in the Gaza Strip. Everything has changed, the genocide that Israel has been waging for 10 months has changed everything, except the Palestinians’ faith in the justice of their cause.
Separation, loss, dispersion, and even deprivation of the most basic things, are the characteristics of the war by which Israel is exterminating a defenseless people, live on air.
Perhaps one of the most prominent things that the Palestinians of Gaza have been deprived of is the ritual of Friday, that day which has a special uniqueness in the life of Palestinians, in which they gather, share a communal meal that strengthens their relationships, and connect with their extended family.
Friday used to be an official holiday from work, which most citizens dedicated to gathering with others, visiting relatives, and sharing a lunch feast – all of which has been absent since the start of the war on Gaza.
Friday gathering
The citizen Ibrahim Hammouda (45 years old) tells the PIC correspondent that they were deprived of Friday, which is like a weekly festival.
He adds to our correspondent that they missed the Friday gathering, the atmosphere of prayer in the mosque, and meeting their loved ones.
The Palestinians used to prepare early for the Friday prayer, wear their best clothes and go early to the mosques to listen to the Friday sermon before returning home to have the lunch meal, and all of this no longer exists.
He explained that his family is scattered between the north and south of the Gaza Strip, as he and his family are staying in the city of Gaza, while the families of his brothers are currently in the south of the Strip.
He cries bitterly, “I miss when we all gather, eat at one table, and perform the Friday prayer together, these are things we have been deprived of since the start of the criminal war.”
Over the past months, the Israeli occupation forces have destroyed the majority of the mosques in the Gaza Strip, and targeted the worshippers while they were praying in them.
Performing the Friday prayer on the ruins of the destroyed mosques or in the courtyards in many neighborhoods has become a great risk, but thousands of Palestinians are still keen on it.
Longing for rituals
In the Deir Al-Balah refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, the citizen Khaled Awda, who has been displaced since the start of the war 10 months ago, tells our correspondent that he misses the rituals of Friday, “the war has scattered the family, separated the gatherings, and planted sadness in the hearts of thousands.”
He continues that he has not seen his wife, who has remained in the north of the Strip for several months, and that he was displaced under Israeli coercion and criminality.
About Friday, the citizen Awda sighs, and recalls a whole day of family gathering, food and visits.
