A yellow tabby tiger with black stripes and a grey-blue bear are making fun of each other on the playground of a UN school in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Several hundred have sought refuge in the school that has been converted into a temporary refugee reception center in the town of Khan Younis.
The war is raging on all sides. But today there is play, smiles and laughter in the school yard.
– It isg came here to play, to forget the war, forget the bombs that we hear both at home and at school.
That’s what Mohammed Abu Tamiyeh, a 10-year-old boy with black bangs says to a local TV team in Gaza with whom NRK collaborates.
Volunteers make breathing holes
Children and adults stand close together in a ring and clap, while acrobats and artists dressed as animals play and joke with the special audience.
They expectantly follow the children’s performance at the UN school in Khan Younis in Gaza, which houses many refugees.
Photo: Ahmed Abu Kmail/NRK
It is a group of volunteer Palestinians who travel around to schools with their show.
– Through activities, we try to reduce the psychological pressure the children experience due to bombs and the sound of rocket strikes, says one of the volunteers, Amar Sahat.
Sahat says that many of the children struggle with psychological problems because of the war. Several have seen relatives and neighbors killed and whole neighborhoods left in ruins.
The work the volunteers do is not without danger either:
– The job is very dangerous, because we can be hit by rockets in the car or along the roads, when we go to entertain, says Sahat.
– The world doesn’t care
It is in this city, Khan Youni’s many who have been forced to flee have taken refuge.
Israel asked 1.1 million people in the north of the Gaza Strip to flee south ahead of the announced ground invasion. But extensive attacks have also been reported against Khan Younis and other places in the south.
Israeli forces have also bombed near hospitals in the Gaza Strip and requested that the hospitals be evacuated.
Recently, the UN said that there are no places in the Gaza Strip that are now safe.
But in the FN school yard, the sound of rockets is briefly replaced by cheers and happy children’s faces. Several carry placards that say “Peace” in Arabic.
They are at a children’s performance at a UN school in Khan Younis and have a poster with them that says “Peace”.
Photo: Ahmed Abu Kmail / NRK
– How long will you continue to kill, forcibly relocate us and commit crimes against us and
The Gaza Strip? It happens while the rest of the world doesn’t care, says Razan Abu, a 12-year-old girl with braces and a pink hijab.
Razan Abu with other children in Khan Younis in Gaza.
Photo: Ahmed Abu Kmail / NRK
Israel began bombing Gaza soon after the terrorist attack by Hamas on 7 October.
1,400 Israelis and foreigners, most of them civilians, were killed and 229 people were taken hostage.
Also read:
In the three weeks since the attack, over 8,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip. Over 3,400 are children, according to Palestinian health authorities, writes the AFP news agency.
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2023-10-30 21:22:36
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