Gaza City, March 31 (RHC)-- Women and children are among at least 20 people who have been killed in Israeli airstrikes that hit the Gaza Strip as Palestinians observe the first day of Eid al-Fitr.

The regime’s military forces attacked a tent encampment for forcibly displaced people in the al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza early Sunday morning.

The encampment, which was designated a “humanitarian safe zone” by Israel in December 2023, is one of the most overcrowded areas in Gaza.  Palestinian activists released footage showing bodies of dead children dressed in new Eid al-Fitr clothes drenched in blood.

Eid al-Fitr, a festive Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramdhan, is supposed to be a joyous occasion, but in Gaza, “It’s the Eid of sadness,” said Palestinian worshiper Adel al-Shaer.

“We lost our loved ones, our children, our lives, and our futures. We lost our students, our schools, and our institutions. We lost everything,” he said. Shaer said he has lost 20 members of his extended family in Israel’s genocidal war on his homeland.

Saed al-Kourd, another worshiper who attended outdoor prayers in the central town of Deir al-Balah, said: “We go out to perform God’s rituals in order to make the children happy, but as for the joy of Eid?  There is no Eid.  There is killing, displacement, hunger, and a siege.”