Cake on the rubble... a woman from Gaza kneads the joy of Eid amid the debris

Aromatic scents waft from the rubble of a house hit by Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza, while Samira Toman puts the final touches on trays of cake and ma'amoul before baking them.

“Maram Humaid Aromatic scents waft from the rubble of a house hit by Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza, while Samira Toman puts the final touches on trays of cake and ma'amoul before baking them”

Al-Jazeera Net

Samira, a 60-year-old mother of seven, works hard alongside her daughters and her son's wife in the last days of the holy month of Ramadan, preparing for Eid al-Fitr.

Al-Jazeera Net

It is the first Eid celebrated by residents of the Gaza Strip after Israeli aggression stopped in October last year.

The mother kneads the dough carefully, then begins shaping it, and at the same time her daughter cuts balls of date paste mixed with sesame to stuff the dough, and the steps repeat until they reach the baking stage.

In front of a blazing oven fed by firewood, Samira and her daughters take turns baking, and although this is the toughest stage due to a shortage of cooking gas, they immerse themselves in their work, enjoying the achievement.

The Eid is here, the season of blessings, but we do not celebrate to the same extent as before the war, when I used to knead and bake until dawn on Eid morning, Samira describes her state while wiping sweat from her brow in front of the oven.

The cookies the family makes this year are not only for their own family, but also include orders from customers and neighbors, which provides the family with some money before Eid al-Fitr.

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Samira says demand is very good for her products despite rising ingredient prices, explaining that people want to regain some of the joy of Eid.

A Joy Diminished.

While Samira planned in late February to buy the ingredients, Israel and the United States waged their war on Iran, quickly taking advantage of the war to close the crossings leading to the Gaza Strip, something they have done for long periods since the start of their war on Gaza in October 2023.

“Maram Humaid Aromatic scents waft from the rubble of a house hit by Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza, while Samira Toman puts the final touches on trays of cake and ma'amoul before baking them”

Al-Jazeera Net

The closure of the crossings led to a crazy rise in the prices of ingredients, which Samira intended to buy such as flour, semolina, date paste, ghee, and sugar; although the crossings reopened partially, prices stayed high.

There are always things that spoil the joy; there is always happiness in Gaza, but it is never complete.

Samira was happy at the start of Ramadan, but her joy quickly faded with the skyrocketing prices of raw materials.

While she adds more firewood, her son breaks apart pieces of furniture he collected from the destroyed homes with a war machine to use as fuel.

As she lights the fire, she says that people have forgotten the meaning of working in the kitchen with order, dignity and cleanliness.

Cooking and work are now linked to soot and fire, recalling the pre-war period when she ran her home business through a social media page.

Al-Jazeera Net

She adds that she once had a daily list and excellent orders, and could support her family, with two kitchens equipped with tools, mixers and ovens, in addition to raw ingredients; she adds sadly that all of that vanished during the war and nothing remains but a memory, and now we start from zero.

Prices rise and borders close.

Since the start of Israel's genocide against Gaza, residents have had to endure extremely difficult conditions, with many living in temporary shelters, amid a severe shortage of basic goods, and even when goods are available their prices are high, making them inaccessible as well.