An Eid celebration on a Gaza rooftop turns into a ‘horror movie’

A rooftop gathering for Eid al-Adha in Gaza City transformed into a scene of terror when an explosion ripped through the building where Widad Al-Husari and her family were celebrating. Amidst the darkness and smoke, Al-Husari and her three-year-old son, Rafiq, fell through a newly created opening in the floor, dangling precariously above a raging fire.

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I didn’t notice the openings… It was dark everywhere and smoke filled the place. I was only holding my child when I suddenly fell with him into an opening.

"I didn’t notice the openings… It was dark everywhere and smoke filled the place. I was only holding my child when I suddenly fell with him into an opening," Al-Husari told Al Jazeera. She described the terrifying moments of hanging from metal rods, feeling the heat of the fire below, until her husband and brothers rescued them. "I lived through moments of hell, like a horror movie, and I still suffer from severe pain and fear to this moment," she recounted.

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I could feel the heat of the fire beneath me… Everyone was screaming, smoke filled the place, and I was hanging [from the metal rods] until my husband and brothers managed to pull me out with my child.

The strike claimed the lives of seven individuals, including two children and two women, and left eighteen others injured. Among the injured was four-year-old Sara al-Khalout, Al-Husari's niece, who was thrown by the blast onto the courtyard below and remains in intensive care. Zuhdia Azzam, a resident of a lower floor, lost her 12-year-old granddaughter, Sidra, and another granddaughter, Sham, had her leg amputated.

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I lived through moments of hell, like a horror movie, and I still suffer from severe pain and fear to this moment. We were sitting eating Eid sweets, then suddenly everything turned into screams.

"It does not matter to Israel whether it is Eid, an occasion, or a densely populated civilian area – suddenly [a missile] is above your head," Azzam stated, reflecting the devastation that shattered the holiday. The family had been sharing sweets when the explosion turned their celebration into screams and chaos.

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It does not matter to Israel whether it is Eid, an occasion, or a densely populated civilian area – suddenly [a missile] is above your head.