Shattered joy: Wedding celebrations cut short in Gaza after Israeli attack

Given the circumstances in the Gaza Strip, it is understandable that the wedding reception for Mustafa and Nesma al-Borsh was a modest affair.

Nesma photographed with her groom, Mustafa, at a beauty salon and rented a white dress. Only 40 people showed up for the ceremony and party in the Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.

From groom to rescuer

“I grabbed my bride’s hand and sent her with my just-departed female relatives.” After that, I removed my wedding suit jacket and rushed to safety with the other men inside the building, according to Mustafa, 29, from Halawa, a displacement camp in Gaza City near Tuffah.

The second floor of the school, where Mustafa’s family and others were staying, was directly hit by the shelling. Additionally, it struck the couple’s planned classroom. Everything they had planned for their wedding was destroyed.

My nephew, who was critically injured all over his body, was taken out by me, Mustafa said.

Although there were calls for ambulances, Israeli assistance was required for the entry of emergency personnel.

The ambulances were not permitted to enter from the Israeli side, he continued, adding that we had to wait more than two hours before they arrived. The circumstance was “incredibly terrifying.” Around us, there were strikes and shelling.

After more than two hours, ambulances were finally permitted to eject the dead and injured.

The victims were retrieved after civil defense teams ordered everyone to leave the building and instructed them to relocate to a safer location.

All their belongings were relocated to shelters inside the city, where families were relocated, once more.

The groom pointed to his white shirt and trousers as evidence that “I’m still wearing my wedding suit” as of that day.

Mohammad, my eight-year-old nephew, passed away two days later from his injuries, according to Mustafa.

The groom Mustafa Al-Borsh and his bride Nesma — After their shelter was bombed and they lost everything, Mustafa al-Borsh and his bride Nesma are now living together in separate tents with their respective families [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera].

repeated backtracking

Before Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza started in October 2023, Mustafa tied the knot with the now 22-year-old Nesma.

That month was the couple’s wedding date.

The kitchen, sofa set, and bedroom were all ready for me. In a photo of the apartment that had once been a part of his family’s home in Jabalia, northern Gaza, Mustafa said, “My fiancée and I put great effort into choosing every piece. Later, it was destroyed.

The couple’s wedding proposal sounded impossible because they had been bombarded, starved, and repeatedly relocated from their families.

Our families occasionally put pressure on us to get married because the war was dragging on, but we both agreed to disagree,” Nesma said, with Mustafa nodding in agreement. In the midst of war and displacement, “we kept asking ourselves how we could celebrate or organize a wedding.”

After losing two of his older brothers during the war, one in December 2023 when their home in Jabalia was bombed, and another in March 2025 during the second half of the conflict, Mustafa’s grief added distance to the idea of marriage.

As his mother listened in the conversation, Mustafa said, “Losing my brothers cast an overwhelming shadow of grief over us, especially my mother, who cannot stop crying whenever she remembers them.”

The couple believed the war had ended when the couple’s engagement was resumed on January 19, 2025. But it quickly resumed.

“At that time, my uncle’s house in Jabalia was still standing, so we made the decision to rent an apartment there and begin building it.” My bride started getting ready and putting on her outfits.

However, “we were shocked when the war broke out again in the middle of March 2025,” Mustafa said.

Both were forced to flee from northern Gaza to the west of Gaza City after the war’s end, where they had to spend their days in tents there until a second ceasefire was in place on October 10, 2025.

Mustafa and Nesma sit on the rubble of the building that was shelled — [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] This is Mustafa and Nesma’s third marriage preparation, but they both lost everything.

Refuge

About 50 kilometres (0, 30 miles) from the so-called “yellow line,” which Israel still controls in Gaza, Mustafa and his family moved to a shelter in the Tuffah neighborhood after the ceasefire was announced in October.

Despite our concerns about the school’s proximity to the yellow line, he said, “We wanted to escape life in the tents during the winter. We decided to move in.”

Both families agreed to hold the wedding on December 19 with a small ceremony in a tent close to the shelter following family discussions.

“I prepared everything I could once the date was decided. I was helped by other displaced families who also provided a classroom for us at the shelter. According to Mustafa, everything appeared to be going well.

Because the shelter was a large number of displaced families, the neighborhood was densely populated, and the area was located outside the yellow line, Mustafa claimed he never anticipated it would be attacked.

In accordance with the ceasefire agreement, the educational center was situated in a region where Israeli forces had withdrawn.

Despite the truce, hundreds of Israeli violations have been reported, with more than 400 Palestinians killed in recent attacks.

He claimed that there were eight fatalities in the shelling of the building next to the wedding tent, all of whom were Mustafa’s family’s neighbors and relatives.