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Gaza Couple Holds Modest Wedding in Tent After Multiple Delays
Saja al-Masri, 22, and Mohammed Ahliwat, 27, plan to marry in days inside a displacement camp in Deir el-Balah after repeated delays. The couple's modest preparations have cost thousands of shekels for basic items that once were far cheaper, reflecting broader economic collapse. Al Jazeera reported their story on 6 May 2026 as poverty and unemployment ravage Gaza.
May 6, 1:51 AM·3m read1 source
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Saja al-Masri, 22, arranged her few belongings inside a tent in a displacement camp in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on 6 May 2026 as she prepared to marry her fiancé, Mohammed Ahliwat, 27, in just a few days. The couple got engaged a year ago while their families were displaced.
Their wedding, set for next week after multiple postponements, will take place in a rented space formerly used as a cafe.
Mohammed Ahliwat bought a tent for 1,500 shekels, about $509. He paid around 2,500 shekels, about $850, for wood and more than 2,000 shekels, about $679, for tarpaulins. A simple bathroom constructed from scraps of wood and plastic sheets cost another 3,000 shekels, about $1,019.
The tent contains two thin mattresses instead of a proper bed and a small cooking corner fashioned from wood and tarpaulin. Mohammed Ahliwat rented the small cafe space for the wedding for 1,500 shekels, or $509. Wedding halls in Gaza currently cost more than 8,000 shekels, or $2,717.
Before the war, apartments in Gaza were available for rent for between $250 and $300 a month. Mohammed Ahliwat previously lived in a large seven-storey house in Bureij in central Gaza and owned a fully furnished 170-square-metre apartment. He and his brothers owned poultry farms that supplied several areas in Gaza before the war.
"It’s not enough that I’m starting my life in a tent under harsh conditions, even this is unbearably expensive," Mohammed Ahliwat told Al Jazeera. He works odd jobs selling bread and canned goods or repairing bicycles. "Everything I earn barely covers food and water.
