The benefits are many, Chapman said:

They didn’t want to undergo the pain of displacement again, Ne’man said. His daughters were crying, telling him, ‘We want to die in this house, this time we’re not leaving,’” he said.But the shelling and gunfire was intense all around them, he said. The water trucks stopped delivering because it was too dangerous. “When you find death all around you … at that point I was forced to take the decision,” he said.

They packed up some belongings and went to a piece of land owned by his relatives in an area called Manshiya on the outskirts of the town of Beit Lahiya, only about a mile away.They felt safe. Ne’man’s uncle’s house was nearby and other relatives were in tents around them.But again the bombardment caught up to them. Last week, Israeli forces began barraging Manshiya – the heaviest Ne’man said he had experienced in the whole war.

They huddled in their tent for three days and nights, afraid to leave even to go to the bathroom. At one point, a drone struck only 20 meters (yards) away.Another strike hit his uncle’s home, killing one of his cousins. “It was so dangerous, we couldn’t even go help him,” Ne’man said. The cousin’s family buried him on the spot, he said.

Others around them fled, but again the Abu Jarads tried to stay as long as they could.

“I was conflicted between two fires, should I leave or stay,” Majida said. Some of their daughters wanted to stay; the younger ones were terrified and wanted to go, she said.A collection of “Star Wars” memorabilia is displayed at Rancho Obi-Wan, a nonprofit museum in Petaluma, Calif., on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)

“I love a good dad joke as much as anyone, but my God you can take it too far,” Taylor said.In western Germany, a Protestant congregation held a Star Wars-themed service Sunday, German news agency dpa reported. Pastor Samuel Dörr and some of his congregants wore costumes and decorated their church in Bensberg.

The day is being celebrated on a large and small scale this year. Disney+ is launching the“Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld” on the date, and it comes as the second season gets underway for another franchise series,