Gaza Weddings Have Become a Heartbreaking Luxury Nobody Can Afford

In Deir el-Balah, a displacement camp in central Gaza, Saja al-Masri is preparing for her wedding in a tent. Not by choice. By necessity.

The 22-year-old bride-to-be stands inside a makeshift shelter cobbled together from scraps of wood, tarpaulin, and plastic sheets. Two thin mattresses on the ground serve as a bed. A corner fashioned from wood and tarp is her kitchen. The bathroom? Also handmade from salvage materials. This is her wedding preparation.

Her fiancé, Mohammed Ahliwat, 27, has already spent roughly $3,057 just building the tent itself - $509 for the tent, $850 for wood, $679 for tarpaulins, and $1,019 for a bathroom. But here’s the gut-wrenching part: even these survival-level expenses are crushing him.

Before Israel’s war devastated Gaza, Mohammed owned a fully furnished 170-square-metre apartment in a seven-storey family home in Bureij. His family ran poultry farms supplying multiple areas across Gaza. Today, he patches bicycles and sells bread for survival income. Everything he earns barely covers food and water.

The Wedding Hall Fantasy

For a wedding venue, Mohammed rented a tiny abandoned café space for $509 because actual wedding halls cost over $2,717. The bride’s dress? Rental shops demand $679 for one night. The dress Saja found through an acquaintance is worn, torn, and outdated - but it’s what they can afford. She sobbed when she tried it on.

Beauty salon preparation for a bride costs $238. Bedroom furniture that once sold for around $1,700 now costs between $4,076 and $6,793 - if you can find it in the gutted market.

A Crisis Spreading Through Families

Saja’s mother, Samira al-Masri, has now married off four daughters during this war. “Each wedding felt like a tragedy to me,” she says, her voice trembling. All four started their married lives the same way - in tents, with almost nothing.

Samira’s 26-year-old son is approaching marriage age, but she’s terrified. “What does he have? Nothing,” she says. “Every time I see the costs, I step back from arranging his marriage.”

The numbers tell the story: unemployment in Gaza has reached 80 percent. Poverty rates have hit 93 percent. Over 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. Before the war, couples could rent apartments for $250-300 monthly. Now, the simplest wedding preparations are financially impossible.

Saja and Mohammed didn’t choose a tent wedding. They’re getting married because waiting longer means no marriage at all. “The situation doesn’t improve,” Saja says. “It only gets worse.”