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As Eid al-Fitr approached, Amani Abu Awda\u2019s four children began asking her for new clothes and toys \u2014 festive items that Muslims customarily buy to celebrate the holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the mother of four from northern Gaza is now displaced with her family in a tent in the southern city of Rafah, far from any sense of festivity and the home that once hosted large family gatherings.<\/p>\n \u201cOh God, I couldn\u2019t get anything for them because of the high prices,\u201d she said Saturday, days before most Muslims worldwide would celebrate Eid al-Fitr. \u201cI had to go try and find used clothing. In normal days, we would never buy such things. But I couldn\u2019t even find any used clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n Eid al-Fitr \u2014 the three-day celebration beginning Wednesday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan \u2014 used to be a joyful time in Gaza. But with famine threatening Gaza amid Israel\u2019s continuing military offensive, Palestinians there say there is little to celebrate.<\/p>\n Ms. Abu Awda\u2019s family managed to take some clothes with them when they fled their home in Jabaliya two months ago. But at a checkpoint, Israeli soldiers made them throw away everything they were carrying as they walked along a dangerous road where some Palestinians had disappeared into detention and others were killed in Israeli airstrikes, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat kind of Eid is this?\u201d Ms. Abu Awda said, adding, \u201cWe have lost so much. We have lost family and loved ones. We have lost our homes and we have lost safety. The feeling of death is with us in every moment, and the smell of death is everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n More than anything, Ms. Abu Awda said, they want a cease-fire for Eid.<\/p>\n Much like Ramadan<\/a>, a month of daylong fasts and religious observance, was marked by bittersweet remembrances of how it used to be observed before Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, Eid too will be characterized by longing comparisons for how different things were just a year ago.<\/p>\n Before the war, <\/span>malls would be packed with families buying new clothes for the holiday and sweets to offer all the relatives that would come by to visit in the days leading up to Eid.<\/p>\n Now those relatives are almost all displaced, packed into small homes with others or sweltering tents made of plastic sheeting.<\/p>\n Many Muslims in the Middle East <\/span>visit the graves of their loved ones on Eid. But with so many killed since the war began in October and with many of them buried in makeshift graves or yet to be recovered from under the rubble, holding onto that tradition now is impossible for most. <\/p>\n