KATHMANDU: Climber Mostafa Salameh is carrying a kite scribbled with dreams of Gaza&#39;s children to the summit of Mount Everest, seeking to raise awareness of the war&#39;s toll on its youngest victims. Tucked among his expedition gear is the kite in red, black, white, and green of the Palestinian flag, marked with handwritten messages from children in the battered Palestinian territory. Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023 has killed more than 72,000 people, according to the territory&#39;s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority. The simple wishes, shaped by loss, grief, and displacement, reflect hope for a future beyond conflict. Palestinian-Jordanian Salameh, 56, also wants to raise $10 million for the UK-based charity Al-Khair Foundation, which provides nutrition, sanitation, shelter, and psychological support to Gazans. &quot;We have all these dreams of the children of Gaza that&#39;s going to go up to the top of the world because they can&#39;t do anything now in Gaza,&quot; Salameh told AFP in a video interview. &quot;They don&#39;t have homes or education. Everything is being done in a tent. And they don&#39;t have access to clean water, proper food or proper medication,&quot; said the mountaineer, who met the children at the Rafah border after they crossed into Egypt. The war has displaced nearly Gaza&#39;s entire population and reduced swathes of the Palestinian territory to rubble. Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in tents, and conditions remain dire despite a ceasefire that took effect in October last year. For Salameh, the expedition hopes to shine a light on the plight of the children and amplify their voices. &quot;The whole world is closing their eyes when it comes to Palestine,&quot; said Salameh, who hopes to make the summit before the spring climbing season wraps up in the next few weeks. &quot;It&#39;s about awareness about what these children are going through, and at the same time to raise money.&quot; The messages inscribed on the kite reflect both ambition and grief, children hoping to become doctors or engineers to rebuild their shattered homes, alongside stark reminders of loss. One girl, Munira, asked Salameh to write the number 47 on the kite. &quot;I said, what is number 47? And she replied that it was the number of all her family members who have been killed,&quot; he said. &#39;A little change&#39;Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and raised in a refugee camp, Salameh&#39;s own journey has been shaped by struggle and determination. He was working at a hotel in Edinburgh in 2004, pursuing a career in hospitality, when a vivid dream changed his life. He saw that he was standing on the top of Everest, reciting the azan, the Islamic call to prayer. &quot;This is where the journey started. I had never climbed a mountain in my life before that,&quot; he said. He made his first attempt to scale the world&#39;s highest peak a year later at the age of 35. But he could only make it to the summit on his third attempt in 2008. Since then, he has completed the Explorer&#39;s Grand Slam, a challenge that involves climbing the highest peaks on each continent and skiing to both the North and South Poles. Many of his expeditions have been for a purpose, raising funds for Syria, blind children, and cancer patients. Although he had vowed not to return to the Everest, the war in Gaza became the motivation that he needed. &quot;I&#39;m a Jordanian originally, my family is from Palestine, and I relate to what these kids are going through,&quot; he said. After nine months of preparation, Salameh is hoping the climb will result in something both symbolic and tangible. &quot;When you have some cause that you really believe in, in your heart and soul and mind, I think it can push you to go and do it,&quot; he said. &quot;If we can make a little change, I would be happy.&quot; Beyond the summit, his ambitions remain rooted in a broader aspiration. &quot;My dream is to see Palestine free one day, and that we can go and visit.&quot;

Middle East

Mountaineer Mostafa Salameh is carrying a kite bearing Gaza children's messages to Mount Everest, aiming to raise awareness and $10 million for humanitarian support amid the devastating war.

Palestinian-Jordanian climber carries Gaza children’s dreams to Everest summit

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ISLAMABAD: Some 680,000 children in Gaza are living in displacement sites overrun by rats, mice, and insects, with families reporting they are too afraid to let their children sleep at night for fear of being bitten; an incident that has already occurred this year, according to Save the Children. According to the organization, an analysis of United Nations data shows that figure places roughly two in three of all children in Gaza inside the more than 1,600 displacement sites where rodents or pests have been openly sighted,&nbsp; Children, particularly infants under five and those weakened by malnutrition, are most vulnerable to the diseases spreading through these camps, according to the foundation. Skin infections and rashes have been reported in nearly two-thirds of assessed sites, lice in over 65% of sites, and bedbugs in more than half of sites, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Rodents are chewing through tents and contaminating food supplies, with few safe storage options available. Cases are expected to worsen as temperatures continue to rise. Waste buildup across rubble-strewn sites has driven the spread of scabies, pneumonia and diarrhea, &ldquo;illnesses that hit young and malnourished children hardest,&rdquo; the organization said.&nbsp; Gaza&#39;s healthcare, water and sanitation systems have been decimated by more than two years of war, turning overcrowded camps into breeding grounds for disease. An Israeli military blockade on aid and commercial goods has left families without access to pesticides, the non-profit reported. When such items do appear in local markets, the prices are unaffordable for most. Families have been reduced to attempting to catch rats with sticks and basic adhesive traps. Shurouq, a multimedia manager for Save the Children in Gaza, described raw sewage running through streets in the rain and being pumped into the sea.&nbsp; &quot;I struggle to find water and people have no choice but to fish and swim in the sea so they are putting themselves at risk,&quot; she said. Save the Children called on Israel to lift the siege immediately, open all border crossings and restore aid flows.&nbsp; &ldquo;Israel, as the occupying power, bears a legal obligation to ensure the humanitarian needs of the occupied population are met,&rdquo; it said, adding that the current ceasefire plan had failed on its humanitarian provisions.

Displaced Palestinians sit with their empty containers amid the rubble of buildings destroyed by the Israeli military, as they wait to collect food from a charity kitchen in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 1, 2026. (AFP)

680,000 children in Gaza live in displacement sites infested with rodents and insects, with nowhere to go and no means to protect themselves as temperatures climb.

Articles tagged with "children in gaza"

Palestinian-Jordanian climber carries Gaza children’s dreams to Everest summit

Two in three Gaza children are rotting in plague-ridden camps