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Gazans recount how they are dealing with death and destruction

The first day of Eid was canceled for Gazans as people try to cope with having lost family, homes and their livelihoods to the wave of attacks between Gaza and Israel.

destoryed residential building in Gaza
Men walk on the rubble of a residential building in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, that was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, on May 13, 2021 in Gaza City, Gaza. — Fatima Shbair/Getty Images

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — On the first day of Eid on May 13, when people were supposed to be flocking to prayers in the early morning, the sounds of praise for God ("Takbir") clashed with the sounds of airstrikes launched from Israeli aircraft, which have not left Gazan skies since May 10.

At dawn May 13, Abu Mohammed al-Madhoun, 60, could no longer contain himself and broke out in tears, crying, “Ya Allah, Ya Allah!” (Oh God, Oh God!) as he searched for the bodies of relatives and neighbors under the rubble of buildings leveled by Israeli military strikes on the Sheikh Zayed residential neighborhood in the north of the Gaza Strip.

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