Eid has just ended. Across much of the Muslim world, families gathered around tables, children wore new clothes, and homes echoed with laughter and celebration.
While communities elsewhere marked the occasion with joy and togetherness, Gaza endured another season of grief, displacement and death.
The images that emerged from Gaza during Eid al-Adha were not isolated tragedies. They were a glimpse into the reality that continues every day behind the convenient fiction that the war has somehow ended.
One image showed a mother, Hidayah, taking her daughters shopping for Eid clothes. The girls entered the shop while she remained outside. Moments later, an Israeli strike hit. They rushed back out in panic only to find their mother lying dead in the street, soaked in blood.
Another clip lasted only seconds. Amid the ruins of a building destroyed by an Israeli air strike, a man held the body of a small girl in his hands. Her body was shattered, charred and covered in blood. As he lifted her from the rubble, he screamed: "This is the first day of Eid!"
