Eid Al-Adha is marked by prayers, joyful celebrations, feasts and charity. However, the people of Gaza are observing Eid amid dire humanitarian conditions and a rise in violence.
Eid Al-Adha holiday began with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) announcing it would temporarily close its doors amid severe food shortages and Israeli military continuing its operation in Gaza, according to Reuters.
GHF Operations Paused
As Gaza’s population is facing severe food shortages that put the Strip on the brink of famine, the GHF said it would suspend its work because overcrowding had made its operations “unsafe.”
On Friday, the GHF sent contradicting messages as it announced the closure of its distribution hubs in southern Gaza. Later, it said it had delivered food, before saying it had shut its doors as a precautionary measure.
“The distribution was conducted peacefully and without incident; however, it was paused due to excessive crowding that made it unsafe to proceed,” the organization said in a statement.
Shooting Incidents
Several shooting incidents took place in the vicinity of the GHF’s operations, where the Israeli military opened fire at Palestinians while they were trying to reach the aid distribution site in southern Gaza.
Early Tuesday, June 3, 2025, the Israeli military killed at least 27 people, including two women and three children, and injured others while they were heading to the GHF’s aid distribution site.
Similarly, on Monday morning, Israeli troops killed three Palestinians and injured dozens while they were on their way to the GHF aid distribution site in Rafah. The Israeli military also killed 31 and injured dozens of Palestinians in the same area on Sunday.
According to local health authorities, more than 80 Palestinians had been killed and hundreds injured near aid distribution sites from June 1-3, 2025.
GHF Distribution Mechanism
The GHF is an Israeli and US-backed organization that aims to set a new mechanism for aid delivery in Gaza. This involves establishing a number of distribution sites in southern and central Gaza, where Palestinian civilians will head once a week to receive one aid package per family. The GHF cooperates with private American contractors to secure aid trucks until their arrival at the distribution sites.
However, the organization has faced sharp criticism as the UN and other humanitarian organization refused to cooperate with it, accusing it of serving Israel’s military objectives which include displacing Palestinians.
Famine Warnings
On March 2, 2025, Israel imposed a total blockade on aid entry into Gaza to ramp up pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages. Under growing international pressure, Israel in mid-May allowed limited aid delivery to resume under UN supervision.
However, UN officials denounced the Israeli restrictions that obstruct the distribution of the much-needed aid and have made the situation in Gaza “catastrophic.”
On Thursday, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that the people of Gaza are expected to experience acute food insecurity by September, with around 500,000 people facing extreme food deprivation, leading to malnutrition and starvation.
“This means the risk of famine is really touching the whole of the Gaza Strip,” the director of the FAO office of emergencies and resilience, Rein Paulson, said in an interview, as quoted by the Associated Press (AP).
Israeli Strikes
In a separate development, Israeli strikes continued on the Gaza Strip, claiming the lives of 16 Palestinians in northern Gaza, according to local health authorities. The residents of Gaza said they had to hold Eid Al-Adha prayers amid rubble, under the Israeli bombing and shelling.
The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders on Friday for areas in and around Gaza City, warning of imminent intensive operations in response to rockets fired at Israel from the area, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced that four of its soldiers were killed in a booby-trapped building in Khan Younis, bringing the army death toll to 8 since the start of June.
