Gaza City — In her tent, where she has spent much of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, 68-year-old I’tidal Hamdan prepares for her third consecutive Eid al-Adha away from home.Hamdan imagined this year would be different. She had hoped to fulfil a lifelong dream of performing Hajj, one of the five obligatory pillars of Islam, with her husband. But she has no chance of leaving Gaza, and her husband, 67, was killed in an Israeli strike last year.“Maybe I’ve been dreaming about it for more than 10 years,” she told Al Jazeera. “My husband wanted Hajj so much … and he was killed before he could fulfil his wish.”Israeli restrictions on exit points in Gaza mean that for a third year, there are no pilgrims departing for Hajj – the pilgrimage coinciding with Eid al-Adha.Many displaced families are unable to return to their homes, if the buildings are still standing, and decorate them with Eid ornaments due to Israeli restrictions on movement.The Israeli siege and war on Gaza mean that few cattle or sheep survived, so the custom of animal sacrifice – another important feature of the festival – will be marked by few families this year.Before the war, Hamdan’s name, alongside her husband’s, appeared on the 2024 Hajj list, …
