What began as a modest attempt to mark a family milestone in eastern Gaza ended in devastation, as a celebration was cut short by fire during a genocidal war that has steadily eroded civilian life. In the Al-Tuffah area of Gaza City, families who had gathered in a school shelter for a wedding found their brief moment of normality overwhelmed by violence, turning music and laughter into panic and loss.

Those present recall how the strike came without warning, collapsing parts of the building and scattering people who had already been displaced from their homes. Children, parents and relatives were caught in the chaos as dust and debris filled the hall. Survivors describe searching for loved ones amid cries for help, only to discover that some would not be found alive. The absence of any military activity in the vicinity underscored the sense that civilian spaces had once again been rendered unsafe.

Medical help arrived slowly, hindered by the conditions imposed by the genocidal war. The wounded were carried by hand to reach treatment, while overstretched hospitals struggled with shortages. For families already living through repeated displacement, the losses went beyond individual lives: several households were wiped out entirely, leaving gaps in family records and deepening the collective trauma felt across the neighbourhood.

Residents say this was not an isolated tragedy but part of a wider pattern in which everyday civilian gatherings, homes, shelters, and moments of celebration, are repeatedly transformed into sites of mourning. A wedding that should have marked a new beginning instead became another reminder that, in Gaza, even the most ordinary expressions of life are fragile under a genocidal war that shows little regard for civilians.