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27-12-2025
GAZA STRIP: Mustafa and Nesma al-Borsh’s wedding party was, understandably, a modest affair, considering the conditions in the Gaza Strip.
Nesma went to a beauty salon, rented a white dress, and took some photos with her groom, Mustafa. The ceremony and party were held in a tent in eastern Gaza City’s neighborhood of Tuffah, with only 40 people in attendance.
“I won’t say it was the wedding day I had always dreamed of, but given the harsh conditions we are living under, we tried to steal a few happy moments, and we did,” Nesma said.
Those happy moments were stolen from Mustafa and Nesma.
As last Friday’s celebration wrapped up, Israeli shelling hit a building next to the tent.
The targeted site was a vocational training facility run by Gaza’s Ministry of Education, but had been converted into a shelter during the war. The couple had been planning to live there after the wedding.
Flames rose from the site; dust, smoke, and screams filled the area.
The newlyweds stood in shock, unable to comprehend what was unfolding around them, as their wedding day turned into a tragedy.
From groom to rescuer
“I immediately grabbed my bride’s hand and sent her with my female relatives who had just left. Then I took off my wedding suit jacket and rushed with the other men to rescue those inside the building,” Mustafa, 29, told media from Halawa, a displacement camp in Gaza City near Tuffah.
The shelling directly hit the second floor of the school, where Mustafa’s family were staying with others. It also hit the classroom that had been prepared for the couple to live in. Everything they had arranged for their wedding was burned.
“I helped retrieve bodies and rescue the wounded, and I pulled out my nephew, who was critically injured all over his body,” Mustafa said.
Ambulances were called, but emergency crews required Israeli coordination to enter the area.
“We waited more than two hours for the ambulances to arrive, but they were not allowed to enter from the Israeli side,” he added. “The situation was indescribably terrifying. We could hear strikes and shelling around us.”
After more than two hours, ambulances were eventually allowed in to evacuate the wounded and the dead.
After civil defence teams evacuated everyone from the building, instructing them to move to a safer location, they retrieved the victims.
Families were displaced, again, to shelters for internally displaced people inside the city, leaving behind all their belongings.
“Since that day, I’m still wearing my wedding suit,” the groom told media, pointing to his white shirt and trousers.
“There is a bloodstain belonging to my eight-year-old nephew, Mohammad, who died two days later from his injuries,” Mustafa said.
Repeated delays
Mustafa got engaged to the now 22-year-old Nesma several months before Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023.
Their wedding had been scheduled for that month.
“My apartment was fully ready: the bedroom, sofa set; kitchen. My fiancée and I put great effort into choosing every piece,” Mustafa said, showing a photo of the apartment that had been part of his family’s home in Jabalia, northern Gaza. It was later destroyed.
The couple had endured bombardment, hunger, and repeated displacement with their families, making the idea of a wedding seem impossible. (Int’l News Desk)
