'What do you want to do when the war ends?' Omar asks. A little boy replies: 'I want to go to Kindergarten.'
As the situation in Gaza worsens by the day, two friends living inside the strip have begun sharing daily video diaries of the conditions.
Omar and Herz have over 400,000 followers on their Instagram account where they post ‘dystopian’ ‘day in the life’ videos in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, where more and more Palestinians from Rafah are fleeing.
In one of their latest videos, Herz explained how he was walking to find some bread as supplies dwindle in Gaza.
He said: ‘Unfortunately, the bread is really expensive, nearly $6, because there is a lack of flour.’
In March, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa regional director, Sally Abi Khalil, cited ’catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation in Gaza… the highest ever recorded on the IPC scale, both in terms of number of people and percentage of the population.’
Herz and Omar’s videos show that despite the ongoing disaster and worsening crisis, the people of Gaza are still trying to live a normal life.
He continued: ‘I headed to meet Omar and we started the day. We went to the chess club, as it was the third day of the tournament.’
Children were filmed playing chess quietly and cheering after a coin flip – other videos showed men playing football under cloudy skies.
Scenes from their videos show children playing and life trying to creep forwards in the besieged strip, despite the threat of Israeli strikes.
In one heartbreaking clip, Omar asked a young boy: ‘What do you want to do when the war ends?’
The little boy replied: ‘I want to go to Kindergarten.’
Omar and Herz explain in their videos that as they’re living in Deir al-Balah, near northern Gaza, life is a bit more normal – though bombings still happen.
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The city is seeing an influx of refugees fleeing back north, however, as Israeli forces move in around Rafah in the south.
Meanwhile, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is continuing to juggle competing pressures at home and abroad while weighing up how far to push the offensive against Hamas in Rafah.
Protests by families of the more than 130 hostages still held in Gaza have become a constant fixture, with demonstrators demanding a ceasefire deal which would get them back.
Others are just as vocal in calling for the IDF to press ahead with the assault.
The opposing pressures mirror divisions in Netanyahu’s cabinet between centrist ministers worried about alienating Washington – Israel’s most vital ally and supplier of arms – and religious nationalist hardliners determined to clear Hamas out of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas handed Netanyahu another dilemma when it declared it had accepted a ceasefire proposal brokered by Egypt for a halt to fighting in return for an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli officials rejected the offer, accusing Hamas of altering the terms of the deal.
But it did not break off negotiations and shuttle diplomacy continues.
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