Wedding on Hold
Hebron, West Bank – Haidar Yahya Tamimi had finished preparing his home. He bought new furniture and chose his wedding suit. He sent invitations to 1,000 people. After four months of preparation, the 27-year-old was due to marry his fiancée, Ruba, on Friday. Instead, he was forced to leave his home in the al-Jalada district. The wedding has been postponed indefinitely.
Haidar worked as a radiology technician at the Red Crescent Hospital in Hebron for about a year. He was preparing to celebrate his wedding on Friday. The celebration was scheduled for Thursday evening. He and his fiancée had chosen furniture for their new home together. He also picked out his wedding suit. A photo of the suit was shown to Al Jazeera.
But on the evening of October 23, when Hebron was declared a closed military zone after the attack, Haidar and his family were ordered to leave. They departed in the middle of the night. They took only what they could carry. Everything the couple had prepared for the wedding remained in the house, far from them. Haidar says he does not know when they can return.
The groom managed to reach a nearby spot where he could see the house. He could not approach due to the Israeli army's presence. „I looked at the house and saw that my dream was supposed to happen here, but it has been postponed indefinitely,”Haidar said. He saw Israeli soldiers around the house. He says his relatives showed him security camera footage of soldiers entering his home. The current state of the house is unknown.
Passports Locked Inside an Office
Regarding the wedding, the couple has not set a new date. They must first know when they can return home.
Locals estimate that over 100 businesses have been affected by the Israeli blockade. Consider the al-Jalada offices of Rukn al-Asala. This is a travel agency specializing in Muslim pilgrimage services. The agency's manager, Kamal al-Sharif, 35, could not reach the office where he worked with his father for 16 years.
The agency organized a religious Umrah pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia for 15 people. They were due to depart on Wednesday. Given that the potential travelers' passports are still in the office, and locals are unsure when the blockade will end, the trip may be postponed or cancelled.
Among the documents inside the office are seven passports. According to Kamal, they arrived from the Chinese embassy on October 22, one day before the closure. These belong to merchants who planned to travel to China on October 26. The merchants have visas but no passports, and could not travel, Kamal said.
One merchant, a man in his 30s who did not want to be named for security reasons, said he was preparing to attend a trade fair in China. He planned to purchase equipment for his family business. Flight and hotel reservations were cancelled. The merchant is stuck, without knowing when he can obtain the products he needs.