Eid al-Adha in Gaza had always been known as the “Big Eid,” given that its celebrations were more extensive than those of Eid al-Fitr. Eid al-Adha, or the “Feast of Sacrifice,” which commemorates Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of submission to God, is the most important Islamic holiday and begins during the Hajj on the 10th day of the Islamic lunar month of Dhul-Hijjah.
With exhausted steps and eyes filled with tears, Hanaa al-Mabhuh moves between the hall displaying photographs of bodies and the morgue at al-Shifa Hospital in a grim search for any trace of her missing son. The 56-year-old mother wipes away tears with the back of her hand and stares at the decomposed faces on the screen, torn between the desire to find out what happened to her youngest child, while at the same time fearing he might be among the dead handed over by Israel under a US-brokered ceasefire deal.
On January 23, 11-year-old Aline Asfour received her third-grade graduation certificate with honors, scoring in the 98th percentile and ranking first in her class. Her family celebrated her academic achievement and excellence. Two days later, Aline began feeling unwell. She started vomiting repeatedly and suffered from severe diarrhea. At first, her family believed she was experiencing a common cold due to the cold weather and living in displacement tents.
Live updatesLive updates, Israel carries out deadly attacks in Gaza a day before the Rafah crossing is due to reopen. At least 12 Palestinians, including six children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza City and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip since dawn, according to medical sources speaking to Al Jazeera. The violence comes a day before Israel is due to reopen the Rafah crossing, which links Gaza with Egypt, on Sunday for the first time since May 2024.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on Palestine, has accused Israel of treating Palestinian lives as expendable, linking the hellish impact of a deadly winter storm in Gaza directly to the deliberate destruction of the enclave's infrastructure. Speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic on Tuesday as a deep weather depression pummelled the Gaza Strip, killing at least seven children, Albanese said the weather disaster had exposed the depth of Israel's disregard for civilian survival.
Live updatesLive updates, Storm Byron has caused a number of houses, walls and tents to collapse across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. A number of houses, walls and tents have collapsed in the Gaza Strip since Storm Byron descended upon the enclave destroyed by Israel's genocidal war, killing at least 10 people in past 24 hours.
The Gaza Strip is facing an ever-deepening crisis in medical care and rehabilitation. In September 2024, the World Health Organization estimated that nearly a quarter of the injured - more than 22,000 people - had sustained wounds that resulted in the loss of limbs or permanent disabilities. By September 2025, that number had almost doubled: More than 41,800 people in Gaza now require long-term rehabilitation due to injuries.
The United Nations humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, has urged Israel to immediately open more crossings into the famine-stricken Gaza Strip to allow for a surge in aid deliveries. In remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Fletcher said that the UN is seeking a dramatic boost in humanitarian aid for Gaza, saying the hundreds of relief trucks cleared to enter the devastated enclave were nowhere near the thousands needed to ease a humanitarian disaster.
An independent inquiry commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) found that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. According to the report released on Tuesday, four of the five genocidal acts found in the 1948 UN Genocide Convention have been carried out in Gaza. The report called on the international community to end the genocide and take steps to punish those responsible for it.
Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), which is caused by a viral or bacterial infection, causes the immune system to attack the body, weakening muscles and progressively paralyzing different parts of the body. The World Health Organization (WHO) has detected 85 cases in the enclave since June. Three of these patients have died, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. The WHO acknowledges that the cause of the disease is not fully understood, but it is being linked to contaminated food or the consumption of untreated water.
The Trump administration announced Saturday that it had paused approvals of visitor visas for people from the Gaza Strip, a key pathway for those seeking medical care in the United States.
Hani Hammad, an 18-year-old, described his harrowing experience during a chaotic stampede while trying to collect food aid, highlighting the suffocation and panic. He felt he was dying, unable to move amid the frantic crowd as he suffered beneath their feet. He was eventually hospitalized unconscious, placed beside deceased individuals who succumbed to suffocation and gunfire. Hani noted, 'I thought I was one of them,' reflecting on the desperation that drove them to such perilous conditions.
A midday airstrike in eastern Gaza City killed 11 people, whose bodies were taken to Al-Ahli Hospital. Another strike near the entrance of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza left two dead, according to Al-Awda Hospital.
