Connect with us

Foreign

Gaza Children Fly Kites To Escape Horrors Of War

Published

on

Metres away from the concrete and steel fence separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt, 11-year-old Malak Ayad flies a paper kite high in the sky – a welcome distraction from the horrors of war.

“Every day I play with my brothers and cousins with kites next to the Egyptian border,” said the Palestinian girl, displaced from Gaza City with her family to the southern city of Rafah.

“When I do, I feel free and safe,” she added, gently manoeuvering her kite, which she calls “Butterfly”, back and forth across the border with a white string.

Her cousins and friends run along the fence trying, in vain, to get their kites to take flight, but a loud explosion in the distance makes them stop in their tracks.

Advertisement

“Quickly, the (Israeli) bombardment is getting closer,” said Malak’s uncle Mohammed Ayad, 24, urging the children to leave the area.

Malak quickly obeys, reeling in her kite and folding it, then rushes back to a tent where her family is taking shelter in the nearby Khir area.

“Playtime is over. When air strikes begin we run back home,” Malak said, trembling with fear.

The war began with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Advertisement

Israel’s retaliatory campaign to destroy Hamas has killed at least 32,782 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Malak Ayad and her family are among 1.5 million people, most of them displaced by the war, now living in Rafah, where Israel has vowed to carry a ground offensive as it pursues its campaign against Hamas.

Despite the war and the fear that grips her, Malak seems to be happy to fly her kite and dreams of life as it was before the war broke out on October 7.

“My kite flies to Egypt every day while we are here trapped in Gaza,” said Malak, who wears a bracelet featuring the Palestinian flag.

Advertisement

“I don’t know when we will be able to return home,” she said, adding that her mother told her that her school has been hit by the Israeli army and “destroyed”.

Haitham Abu Ajwa, 34, who is also displaced from Gaza City, said kite flying “reminds me of my childhood”.

He too lives in a tent in Rafah with his wife and two boys, Mohammed, 5, and seven-month-old Adam.

Flying kites helps to “free oneself of negative thoughts”, he said, and the border area with Egypt is “the ideal place to expel… the sadness and pain that we feel”.

Advertisement

“In the camps, you cannot feel free or comfortable,” said Abu Ajwa as he helped Mohammed fly a kite.

Dozens of children, some with their families, come daily to the border area in the afternoons to fly kites across the frontier.

Some start up conversations with Egyptian soldiers manning surveillance towers.

When Malak’s kite flew past the watchtower, one of the soldiers called out to her: “Well done, princess.”

Advertisement

The little girl thanked him with a wave and said, “I love Egypt. My wish is to travel there like my kite.”

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Foreign

There will be no same sex marriage again -Trump vows to end ‘transgender madness ‘

Published

on

President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday pledged to “stop the transgender lunacy” on day one of his presidency, as Republicans — set to control both chambers of Congress and the White House — continue their push against LGBTQ rights.

“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” the president-elect said at an event for young conservatives in Phoenix, Arizona.

He also vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports,” adding that “it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”

Speaking to the AmericaFest conference in a border state he easily carried in the November election, Trump further promised immediate measures against “migrant crime,” vowed to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and doubled down on his talk of restoring US control of the Panama Canal.

Advertisement

Transgender issues have roiled US politics in recent years, as Democratic- and Republican-controlled states have moved in opposite directions on policy such as medical treatment and what books on the topic are allowed in public or school libraries.

Last week, when the US Congress approved its annual defense budget, it included a provision to block funding of some gender-affirming care for the transgender children of service members.

In his speech Sunday, which amounted to something of a victory lap, Trump made expansive promises for his second term — and drew a dark picture of the four years preceding it, under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the latter of whom he defeated in the 2024 election.

“On January 20, the United States will turn the page forever on four long, horrible years of failure, incompetence, national decline, and we will inaugurate a new era of peace, prosperity and national greatness,” Trump said, referring to his swearing-in.

Advertisement

– ‘Golden age’ –

“I will end the war in Ukraine. I will stop the chaos in the Middle East, and I will prevent, I promise, World War III.”

He added: “The golden age of America is upon us.”

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Foreign

Fresh Israeli Airstrikes In Gaza Kill 25 Palestinians Including Children

Published

on

Fresh Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 25 Palestinians, according to medics.

The casualties on Friday included at least eight people in an apartment in the Nuseirat refugee camp and 10 others in the town of Jabalia, among them seven children.

Efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have yet to succeed.

Sources involved in the negotiations told Reuters on Thursday that Qatar and Egypt had resolved some points of contention but key issues remain unresolved.

Advertisement

Israel launched its assault on Gaza following Hamas-led attacks on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023.

The attacks resulted in the deaths of 1200 people and the abduction of over 250 hostages, according to Israeli reports.

Israel states that approximately 100 hostages are still being held, though it is unclear how many remain alive.

Gaza authorities report that Israel’s ongoing campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians and displaced the majority of the 2.3 million residents.

Advertisement

Much of the territory has reportedly been devastated by the conflict.

Continue Reading

Foreign

Biden signs bipartisan funding bill to keep government open

Published

on

President Biden signed the stopgap funding bill that will keep the government open until March, punting the thornier issues surrounding the nation’s finances to the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

A bloated 1,500-page funding measure was exploded by Trump and his top ally Elon Musk earlier this week as they demanded a pared-down version.

The parties were able to cobble a stopgap bill together Friday evening, which passed the Senate early Saturday morning.

The package funds the government at current levels until March 14, 2025, and includes $100 billion in hurricane relief funds and $10 billion in aid to farmers.

Advertisement

With the stopgap funding only running until March, an almost certain clash is looming between Trump and GOP spending hardliners when Congress reconvenes in January.

“The bipartisan funding bill I just signed keeps the government open and delivers the urgently needed disaster relief that I requested for recovering communities as well as the funds needed to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” Biden said in a statement after inking the deal.

The post Biden signs bipartisan funding bill to keep government open appeared first on New York Post.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2024 Naija Blitz News