Deir el-Balah, Gaza – In the middle of a makeshift camp for displaced people in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, the air was filled with sounds of celebration. Dozens of people gathered to mark the wedding of a Palestinian couple from the north.
Mahmoud, 23, and Shaima Khaziq, 18, had planned to get married more than eight months ago, but the event was postponed due to Israel’s war on Gaza which began last October.
For more than two months, the displaced couple and their families resided in a makeshift camp in Deir el-Balah after being forced to flee the Shujayea neighborhood in Gaza City. “We left our home amid shelling and shooting to seek shelter here, thus postponing our wedding,” Mahmoud told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“We had hoped to wait until the end of the war to celebrate, but as we saw no end to it, we decided to celebrate in simplicity,” he said.
The couple held a simple ceremony in hopes of bringing some semblance of joy to their hearts and those of their displaced neighbors and friends.
Under cloth and nylon tents, family members and well-wishers gathered to witness the union. Shaima was surrounded by her mother, sisters and friends, while women sang songs outside. Mahmoud’s face beamed with modest happiness as he held Shaima’s hand.
It was a poignant event.
“Our joy today seems incomplete,” Mahmoud told Tel Aviv Tribune. “We had hoped for calm, to be able to celebrate in a large reception room and to return to our apartment, now destroyed by the bombings.
Shaima described their happiness as “bittersweet.”
“We had dreamed of a wedding in normal circumstances, in a beautiful dress, but the ravages of war took everything from us,” she said. “Our house, our possessions, all destroyed.
“Yet we refuse to let despair prevail. We will celebrate, even in the midst of destruction. »
Since October 7, 2023, Gaza has suffered a devastating war led by Israel, causing tens of thousands of civilian casualties, mainly children and women. The conflict left behind unprecedented humanitarian crises and widespread destruction of infrastructure, leading Israel to be accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice.