GAZA: Amid the ongoing bloody Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip, Sajida Musabeh, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl from the central city of Deir al-Balah, has found a way to have some fun by making accessories with her friends using colored plastic beads.
“Playing and having fun is the only way for us to lighten ourselves amid the Israeli bombing,” Musabeh told Xinhua while making a bracelet in the courtyard of her house.
Every child across the strip, from the moment they wake up in the morning till they go to bed at night, is subject to the sounds of incessant explosions from the Israeli bombing for more than two months.
“It’s scary,” said the girl, adding that “we are trying to overcome our fears through playing and to feel that we deserve to live in peace.”
“Playing is the only outlet for children in light of the current condition,” through which the kids tried to “love life as much as they can, and forget the killings,” Musabeh’s mother told Xinhua. Accompanied by her speaking were the sounds of Israeli drones and warplanes in the area.
Unfortunately, “children are usually the ones to pay the price and victims of wars without committing any fault,” said the 40-year-old mother of three.
Israel has been launching a large-scale campaign against the Gaza-ruling Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) since Oct. 7, leaving more than 18,600 Palestinians dead, the majority of whom are children and women.
In the far south Rafah city, Jamal Abu Kayed also found a way to get rid of his fears by playing football with a group of others inside a shelter for the displaced.
Speaking to Xinhua, the 14-year-old boy said he is trying to grasp every opportunity to escape from the nightmare of the Israeli attack, which he said no child could live through.
He expressed the hope that the children could break the daily routine and get out of the depression as a result of the bombing and killing by Israeli forces.
“The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world for a child, as reports indicate that dozens of children are killed and injured every day,” said Adele Khader, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
The entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and study, have now been piled with rubbles, Khader said.
She stressed that an immediate and permanent humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to end the killing and wounding of children, protect civilians, and allow urgently needed life-saving aid into the war-torn enclave.
