Baking in rubble: Gaza woman keeps Eid traditions alive despite shortages
In Gaza, Samira Touman makes Eid cookies for her own family as well as customers who place orders, March 2026
Maram Humaid reports in Al Jazeera on 19 March 2026:
Delicious aromas drift inside a partially damaged house in northern Gaza, as Samira Touman moves between trays of kaak and maamoul cookies, putting the final touches on them before baking.
Samira, a 60-year-old mother of seven, busily works alongside her daughters and daughter-in-law in the final days of Ramadan, preparing for the arrival of Eid – the first Eid experienced by residents of the Gaza Strip after the October ceasefire.
The mother kneads the dough carefully and then begins shaping it with attention, while her daughter rolls balls of date paste mixed with sesame to fill the dough. The steps repeat until the baking stage arrives, followed by counting the finished pieces. In front of a blazing oven fuelled by a wood fire, Samira and her daughters take turns baking. This, they say, is the hardest part of the task due to the lack of cooking gas, yet they remain absorbed in completing their work.
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“Every day I had a menu and excellent demand. I was able to support my household. I had two kitchens equipped with tools, electric mixers, blenders, ovens, cooking and baking utensils, as well as raw ingredients,” she says.
“All of that disappeared during the war and became only a memory,” she adds sadly. “Now we are starting again from zero. We do everything by hand and without any of the resources we once had. Even the raw ingredients have become more expensive.”