'Happiest day of our lives': Gazans hold mass wedding among ruins

Brides waiting to be wed during a mass-wedding celebration for Palestinian couples organised by the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation in Gaza City. [AFP]

Wearing traditional Palestinian dresses, the white fabric intricately embroidered in a rainbow of colours, dozens of smiling brides clutched red bouquets as they walked with their grooms past the tents and ruined buildings of Gaza City.

To the tune of popular songs played from loudspeakers in a city square, the couples whose marriages had been long-delayed by war and displacement sat on stage with joy written across their faces.

Thousands turned out to watch the mass wedding against the backdrop of buildings gutted by Israeli strikes over the course of the devastating two-year war.

Attendees clapped and smiled as a troupe performed the dabke, an Arabic folk dance, while women's ululations echoed through the crowd.

"I can't quite believe that I'm finally getting married," Ali Mosbeh told AFP at the start of the ceremony.

"I was sitting in the tent when my phone rang... I couldn't believe it. I'm still in shock," he said, recounting the moment he received the call informing him that he was among the 50 young men selected.

The mass wedding is one of many to have been organised since a ceasefire took effect in Gaza in October. This particular event was organised and funded by the Turkish humanitarian organisation IHH.

The smartly-dressed grooms wore traditional Palestinian kuffiyeh scarves adorned with the Turkish organisation's logo, while the brides' bouquets were dotted with small Turkish flags.

For Mosbeh and his bride, Huda al-Kahlout, the high cost of weddings had also posed an obstacle to tying the knot.

"I never imagined I'd get married in such circumstances," he said.

Carry on living

Most of Gaza's population was displaced at least once during the war between Israel and Hamas, with hundreds of thousands still living in tents or makeshift shelters.

Mosbeh said he would now share a tent with his wife while hoping to find a job -- something that has become near impossible in Gaza.

"Our future is uncertain; we depend on aid to survive," admitted Kahlout, but said that despite "war, loss and death... Marriage remains a beautiful milestone for us young people".

"Most of the buildings around the venue have been destroyed and reduced to rubble, with the martyrs buried beneath them," said fellow bride, Fayqa Abu Zeid.

But she added: "We are trying, despite everything, to find joy and carry on living."

Before the war, "the newlyweds would move into a flat with new furniture. Today, we move into a tent, if there is one," she said.

But despite the devastation, her husband Mohammed al-Ghossain was smiling.

"We are very happy," he said. "It is the happiest day of our lives."