Rapha
CNN
—
At a demonstration in southern Gaza on Sunday, dozens of Palestinian students and children showed solidarity and expressed gratitude for the support they have seen on U.S. university campuses in recent weeks.
A video from the Shaboula refugee camp in Rafah shows a banner with the messages: “Columbia University students, please continue to support us” and “Violations of the right to education and life are war crimes.” Children are shown holding up.
Students gathered around a makeshift tent near the school, which is now a shelter for Palestinians evacuated from northern Gaza. Footage shows people spray-painting messages of gratitude on the fabric of tents. “Thank you, students in solidarity with Gaza. Your message has been received (to us),” one of the messages said.
Takfir Abuyusuf, a displaced student from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, told CNN from the camp that he felt the need to thank American students “for supporting us with their humanity.” .
“This is a message of gratitude written on our tents. Tents that do not protect us from the heat or cold. All we can do is thank them. We have no home. “We can’t write this message of gratitude on the walls of our homes because they have been destroyed on our children, on our elders, on our women,” he said.
AFP/Getty Images
A man in Rafah, Gaza Strip, writes a message of gratitude to U.S. student protesters on April 27, 2024.
Rana al-Taher, 18, told CNN that what should be a place of learning and education has become a place of refuge, pointing to a school in the camp.
“It means we lost our education. We lost our only hope in Gaza and we want it back. We are here to get it back. It’s our right to take it back…that’s why we’re here,” she said.
According to the United Nations, more than 200 schools have been “directly hit” in the Gaza Strip since Israeli shelling began. The United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) said: “There has been no education in Gaza for nearly six months.”
In a recent report, UN experts condemned the “systematic destruction” of Gaza’s education system.
“The persistent and ruthless attack on Gaza’s educational infrastructure is having a devastating long-term impact on people’s fundamental rights to learn and freely express themselves, and is also robbing future generations of Palestinians of their future. ” said the experts.
Bayan al-Fiqi, a first-year university student, told CNN that he has not been able to attend classes at his university in Cairo since the war in Gaza began, but that he has not been able to attend classes at his university in Cairo since the beginning of the war in Gaza. He said he was very grateful that he was able to do so.
“We look forward to putting pressure on Israel and the United States to stop the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip and stop the invasion of Rafah,” she added.
The fate of Rafah depends on the 1.3 million Palestinians sheltering there. There had been speculation for weeks about when Israel would launch its expected military operation in the city. The United Nations has repeatedly warned against an Israeli ground invasion, saying the attack “could lead to genocide” in the southern region.
Tarek Alhelou/CNN
Palestinians participate in a demonstration in Rafah, Gaza Strip, April 28, 2024.
Nowar Diab, 21, told CNN he lamented the impact of Israel’s bombing of Gaza on his schoolwork.
“I was supposed to graduate this year. I studied English and French literature at Al-Azhar University, but Al-Azhar University came under shelling… This war was the beginning of me and my dreams and my career. “I was standing like a dividing line between them,” she said.
“I am standing here today to tell the whole world that we, the students of Gaza, have experienced pain and are suffering every day,” she added.
Diab said that despite the brutality of Israel’s war, the resilience and determination of Gaza’s students to persevere is clear to the world.
Elsewhere in Gaza, dozens of Palestinian Christians attended mass at St. Porphyrius Church, Gaza City’s oldest church, to pray for peace and celebrate Orthodox Palm Sunday.
The video shows men, women, children and the elderly chanting prayers inside the church, asking for peace to prevail in Gaza. Children can be seen dressing up and playing with flowers and candles in the churchyard, which is decorated with palm trees.
Kader Nasrawi, a Gaza City resident who attended the church celebration, told CNN he was hoping for a “better tomorrow.”
“We celebrate this year’s holiday with a heavy heart and a heavy heart for those who have lost loved ones and homes in this brutal war… We are a peace-loving people, and we wish peace to the world. I’m looking for it.” “Jesus Christ, like all other religions, sought peace and love,” he added.
Another resident, Ihab Ayad, told CNN he was injured in an Israeli airstrike that hit the church campus last October.
Ayab said that despite what he has been through, he remains “united and steadfast” with the Palestinian community.
“This holiday is different for us because Palestinians, whether Christian or Muslim, have suffered the tragedies of war. ” he said.
Not far from the church, Israeli airstrikes on Sunday struck a four-story home in Gaza City’s Yarmouk neighborhood, residents and witnesses told CNN. The Israeli military said it had issued a warning before the attack and there were no casualties.
