Gaza has become a graveyard for
children, burying the bodies of the dead
beneath its ruins, beside the hopes of a
future for the living. And yet, in the
midst of all this, a charity in Gaza
City is trying to provide the learning
that will be crucial for life should
their young pupils survive this war.
It is rare these days to see groups of
Palestinian children in Gaza alive and
unblooded.
[Music]
[Applause]
>> Children who physically at least have
still escaped the worst of this war.
Children who still believe they have a
future to prepare for,
>> however precarious their lives are.
What does school give me? Education. I'm
learning and I might get older and
become an engineer.
10-year-old Mahmood and his 9-year-old
sister Kinsey have been displaced eight
times
and now living in the damaged remnants
of a friend's home.
>> Before the war, I was happy. And all my
friends were around not during this war.
All of them they are displaced and
everyone in a different area and some of
them under the rubbing. Now it's boring.
>> It's depressing.
>> They crave normality and the chance to
go to school provides it, offering them
a morning routine similar to and yet so
different from their old lives. and the
lives of children who do not face the
violations of childhood this war
delivers daily.
The constant hum of the drone and thud
of the explosions are an ongoing
reminder of just how much their lives
have changed.
The destroyed schools on their way
testament to the learning and lives lost
here.
Akmood's own body doesn't allow him to
forget all that is different. Hit by
shrapnel a few months into the war, he
can't walk to school, so he uses his
bike. But his injury means he can't
pedal, so he simply drags himself along
despite continual pain.
I was going to buy ice cream from
someone outside and then one of the
wanted people was passing by and he was
talking on the phone and then they hit
him. He was doing a call and they hit
him with a rocket and the shrapnel flew
all over and one of them hit my back in
the spine.
He couldn't walk for 9 months. The
chance to go to school available to so
few in Gaza is helping him and others
recover and cope with the reality of
living in a war zone.
>> What's the color of a tree?
>> Green and brown.
>> Well done.
>> What this is?
>> Yellow.
>> We work every day knowing that the
future here is uncertain. Uh yet we
choose to hold on to hope. Uh every
lesson we give in a message that life
must go on and that these children
actually still deserve to have a normal
life just like your children. They still
deserve to dream despite the risks and
fears that surround us.
>> Those risks and fears are without end.
More than 50,000 children just like
these have been killed or injured,
making Gaza the deadliest place on earth
to be a child.
>> I I cannot describe the teaching a
student or a child one day and hearing
he have been killed in the next day. Uh
it's leave us in a constant fear for
their safety especially
knowing the horrific number of the
children being killed during this uh
ongoing war.
>> Though there is no guarantee of reaching
adulthood, there is still hope and a
sense of obligation to equip for the
world beyond this war.
Israel blocks some teaching equipment
entering Gaza. But with what they have,
the children illustrate their dreams.
For most, simple, but currently
unattainable. A home with walls and a
roof.
Music classes seek to help the children
with their trauma,
>> engaging them even though their tired
eyes tell of their fear, hunger, and
exhaustion.
I get everything inside me out on the
drums, all my anger. I really beat the
drum. I want to play the drums every
day, all the time.
For just a short time there is restbite
from the reality.
>> When I hear the music, I relax. I really
want to study and learn. I want to be a
doctor when I'm older and treat people
and help them.
LA.
>> For those seeking to help these
children, words like that keep them
going through their shared fear and
uncertainty.
>> The problem is this war. Uh so we we try
our best to make them laugh and and
communic communicate with with us and
with the kids. I think music therapy can
do this and we do a lot of these things
with the kids and now they are they are
quite good.
>> Let's go.
>> Every day Gaza's children are
acknowledged in death. The wish here is
for them to be known in life.
>> I want the world to understand that we
are a normal people just like you and
these children are not just a number.
uh they are dreams, they are talents.
Uh there is a future waiting to happen.
So supporting them it is not a charity,
it is a responsibility
and I really hope that the world will
stand with them before it is too late.
>> No one in Gaza assumes there will be a
tomorrow anymore. But if there is, this
small school in the ruins
will give its children a place to
believe in their futures should they
live to enjoy them.
>> Emma Murphy, ITV News.