AN emotional Breandán Mac Cionnaith has spoken today about a photo he received from a young woman in Gaza expressing her support with the people of the Garvaghy Road.

In the video, shared across social media, the Garvaghy Road residents' spokesperson, is visibly emotional as he speaks about the message from Palestine.

The message was sent from Rahaf who visited St Louise's Comprehensive College on the Falls Road in Belfast back in September 2022 with two other classmates and three teachers. Holding a message written on cardboard which reads, 'Garvaghy Road Residents Deserve Peace And Justice. No Orange Marches', an accompanying message from Rahaf reads: "As  someone living through war and destruction here in Gaza, where justice often feels completely absent, this message deeply resonates with me.

"I know what it feels like when basic peace and dignity are stripped away, and how painful it is to fight for safety in your own home. The residents of Garvaghy Road deserve to live in peace without fear or intimidation, just as every family in Gaza does.

"Injustice speaks the same language everywhere, but so does the human hope for freedom. Sending you this solidarity from the heart of Gaza."

Speaking about the message from Gaza, Mr McCionnaith said: "Earlier on this morning I received a message and I'm being quite honest when I say, it made me cry.

"The message came from a young teenage girl in Gaza. I found it hard to believe that given everything that's been going on in Gaza, seventy-eighty thousand people killed, one-hundred thousand and more wounded.

"Hospitals bombed, schools bombed, a whole population displaced. It's just incredible to know that a sixteen year old girl in Gaza, Rahaf, sent a message this morning to our community.

"A simple photograph, that's all it is," he continued, "It's an amazing message, and as I say when I got it this morning, I think when other people got it too, when I shared it, they like myself were very emotional.

"It's a tremendous message given, as I say, everything that has happened and everything that the Palestinian people have gone through, that they think of us."