“TODAY is the best day in my life because today I sent my message of hope to the world.”
These were the words of Rahaf, then aged 15 who, along with her friends from Gaza, Malak (14) and Yara (13) spent a week-long visit to Belfast in September 2022, organised jointly by the INTO Palestine Ambassadors group and The Hands Up Project, a British charity that connects Palestinian children with their peers and teachers globally. The pupils from Gaza were joined by Magdalena (12) and Julie (13) from the Czech Republic.
The girls had won the HUP Lockdown Theatre competition ‘Welcome to Earth’ and their prize was a life-changing trip Belfast to turn the play into a face-to-face performance.
The group enjoyed a very warm welcome from their host families, as well as the staff and pupils at St Louise’s Comprehensive College, St Kevin’s Primary school, Coláiste Feirste, All Saints College and Glengormley High. Over the course of the week-long visit the pupils performed their play, took part in art classes, enjoyed a bit of camogie training, and had a video call with an UNRWA school in Gaza. Founder of the Hands Up Project Nick Bilbrough said at the time that the whole trip had been "amazing" and “meant so much to the children who had never left the Gaza Strip before".
This trip had given Rahaf, Malak and Yara a unique chance to develop long-lasting connections with their peers in Ireland. As Malak said at the time: “We all share dreams and hopes. We want to achieve a sustainable, peaceful and better world. And we know that together we can make a difference.”
Since October 7, however, the world of the teachers, Rinan and Rajaa who accompanied the girls, as well as the pupils themselves, has been turned upside down. Hostilities escalated after Hamas fighters killed around 1,200 people and took over 200 hostage in southern Israel. To date, the Israeli bombardment of Gaza has killed almost 30,000 people including at least 10,000 children. The girls learning camogie at Coláiste Feirste
Text messages received from the teachers and pupils give harrowing accounts of their experiences to date. In mid-October the INTO Palestine Ambassadors group learned that Yara and Rahaf were missing while Malak’s home had been destroyed. At the end of November word was received that the girls and teachers were alive but extremely fearful.
Rahaf texted: “We are now trapped in the camp…please do anything, we will die.” At the same time, she was able to post a short video clip taken from inside a darkened room. Gunfire can be heard outside followed by an explosion and screams.
Yara, now aged 16, wrote: “I am alive, but I am not well. They destroyed our house and destroyed all my dreams… I have become like a homeless person without a homeland…I just wish I could live like the rest of the children of the world… It’s truly a nightmare that I hope to wake up from.”
Another message from Malak read: “I think it will be the end, maybe I will die. If I die don’t forget me and always remember me, please. Love you so.”
Teacher Rajaa spoke of what happened to her house in Gaza City where she lived with her husband and five children. “On Thursday, November 23, I thought it was nearly the end. My house was targeted by Israeli tanks. My father and I got injured. The bombing went on for five hours non-stop. My kids were horrified, and we started saying our last words to each other. We said we loved each other, and we hoped that if we were going to die that we all die together holding each other. Luckily, we survived. But my husband’s family members weren’t lucky. His sister and all her family were killed. An entire family is now under the rubble of their house, and no one could get them out to be properly buried.”
The children involved with the Hands Up project last year
Teacher Rinan, along with thousands of others, had originally taken refuge in a hospital but had to evacuate after it was destroyed by the Israeli military. In early December she texted: “I’m here at the UNWRA school in Rafah. Thank God I could at least find a place to rest with my own family…the situation is not good…the south is calmer, but there are about 10,000 people in the school. Imagine the crowds, the noise, rubbish.”
The most recent messages received by the pupils and teachers, tell of the horrors they are facing lately. Only last week a message was received from Rahaf…
“The situation is very difficult here in Gaza. There are high prices and widespread hunger and poverty in these cold climates. There are no foodstuffs, and if you find these items, the price is very expensive. We had some money but this ran out and we need clothes in order to feel warm in this cold weather. No one can help us. We are far from our relatives and they took my dad far away. We don't know anything about him.”
Malak wrote in the last few days … “Everything is going worse in my life. I evacuated from my homeland not once, but four times. From the north to the south of Gaza… We have spent two months in Rafah. We have one bathroom and no kitchen for 50 people. We sleep together and we don't have enough space…We don't have healthy food…we don't have vegetables and if we have they are very expensive…My life changed to a nightmare from the 7th of October. I had dreams, I had friends, I had life but now I have lost everything. I just want to live like any other human in this world. I want to eat healthy food, I want to drink clean water. I want to achieve my dreams and I want to be a doctor. I want to live safely. So many of my friends have died."
Yara, Rahaf and Malak
A message from Yara reads: “Hi, we are ok but we don't have any money left to buy any things to stay alive. I don't know how we are going to build our home again… Every day is getting worse... there's no safe place. This is not beautiful Gaza, this is hell. I don't know …maybe this time we will leave this place. Here we have no energy to build anymore. Thank you all for sending love and support. I hope all this will end safely."
The most recent message was received from teacher Rinan. "Hi dear, l am writing to you now while l am watching flames in the sky, hearing bombs here in Rafah. Life here is like a hell. I wish if l could tell some good news, but in reality, there isn't any. The war stole my life, my home, my brother, my dreams of seeing my children grow up safely and having a great future. People here in Gaza are no longer ok.
"We want this evil to end."
Paul Woods is Head of History at St Louise's College in Belfast.
