Gaza Roof-Top Eid Party Turns Into 'Horror Movie Scene'

On the first day of Eid al-Adha, Widad Al-Husari, 31, sat with her husband, children, and extended family on a rooftop in Gaza City, trying to create a festive atmosphere amid war and displacement. The family had dinner, shared sweets, and children in new clothes played in a tent erected on the roof, until an explosion shattered the quiet night.

Widad rushed into the tent and picked up her three-year-old son Rafiq, but in the panic, both fell through a hole punched by a missile that had pierced the building. The family followed the screams and found Widad clinging to her son, dangling from iron bars protruding from the rubble several floors below. Below them, a fierce fire raged from the warhead that had exploded seconds earlier.

“I didn't notice the holes… It was dark everywhere and smoke enveloped us. I was just holding my son when I suddenly fell into a hole with him,” Widad said.

Widad pointed to three holes in the rooftop where the missile struck, one of which she fell through. “I could feel the heat of the fire below… Everyone was screaming, smoke covered everything, and I hung there until my husband and brothers pulled me and my son up. As they pulled, the iron bars cut into my body, legs, and back. I lived through hellish moments, like a horror movie, and I still suffer severe pain and fear. We were sitting eating Eid sweets, and suddenly everything turned into screams.”

The attack killed seven people, including two children and two women; 18 were wounded, including Widad's four-year-old niece Sara al-Khalout, who was thrown by the blast into the courtyard below and remains in intensive care.

Zuhdia Azzam, 60, who lives on a lower floor of the building, was hosting Eid guests with her family when a missile struck. In an instant, her 12-year-old niece Sidra was killed, and her 11-year-old niece Sham had her leg amputated. “Everything was completely quiet until we heard a huge explosion… We ran upstairs, where my two nieces had just gone a few minutes earlier. We found one dead and the other holding her severed leg, crawling. For Israel, it doesn't matter if it's Eid, a holiday, or a crowded residential area—suddenly a missile is above your head,” Azzam recounted.

Widad's family previously lived in a comfortable home in the Zeitoun neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, but it was destroyed in November 2023. Their only shelter was the rooftop of a building her brother rented. “I never imagined I would be bombed like this… Anyone who says the war is over is lying. The ceasefire is a big lie; we live in daily fear, and nowhere is safe,” Widad said.

Despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that took effect in October 2025, around 930 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,800 wounded in Israeli attacks during this period. Apartment buildings, markets, vehicles, and cafes have been struck without warning.

At the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, Imad Khroub, 55, was sitting with his family celebrating the second day of Eid al-Adha when his son Saad, 31, received a phone call from Israeli intelligence ordering them and other residents to leave their apartment building. Fifteen minutes later, an airstrike leveled the building. “We were living happy moments, but suddenly everyone was crying, screaming, and running… No one could prepare. We took nothing but the clothes on our backs,” Khroub said.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights warned that continuing attacks on Gaza's remaining residential areas are creating an environment incompatible with human existence or dignity. The center said that “evacuation warnings” do not justify the destruction of homes nor remove protections for civilians under international humanitarian law.