OUR 2025 CHILDREN OF PEACE GRANTS

THE GRANTS…

We fully support the 2025 Gaza Peace Summit held in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt 13 October 2025, attended by 30 countries who agreed to implement the first phase of a plan to end the two year old Gaza War.

We welcome the cessation of hostilities from 10 October 2025 and the return of the Israeli hostages together with the re-supply of aid to Gaza civilians.

Also, we support the Statement by the Summit members to build “peace, security and shared prosperity regardless of race, faith or ethnicity” across the region.

GAZA REPORT

Communications from Gaza have been hard but leading Palestinian journalist Sara Osama al-Najjar (pictured above) sent us this report on the daily struggles facing Gazans.

Where do I begin when there is no sign of an ending? We were defeated before we had the chance to begin.

Our hope and patience collapsed, and our lives crumbled under relentless blows of fate, turning into a ceaseless inferno. Words fail to capture the scene

 – rows of displaced souls, forced out of their homes, walking toward nothingness, carrying bags laden with burdens heavier than mere belongings.

Forced Eviction: An Unknown Destination and an Inevitable Departure

The announcement arrives:

“The Defense Forces order you to evacuate immediately…”

They specify the places of evacuation, yet no destination is given, as if we are cast into emptiness. Even though our city lies in ruins, shattered and grieving, it too has been condemned to yet another forced displacement order.

How do we leave? Where do we go? What do we take with us?

No answers come, only the urgency of time that fights us back, leaving us with unanswered questions lingering in silence.

We begin packing, murmuring to ourselves, “Take everything, because when we return – if we return – we may find nothing left… perhaps we won’t return at all.”

But how can one take everything?

How can memories be stuffed into a backpack?

How can comfort and safety be boxed up in torn cartons?

The Path of Displacement. Longer Than the Limits of Fear

We board a small bus, heading from the east to the west of the city. A journey that used to take thirty minutes before the war, but now stretches to over three hours due to destroyed roads and endless columns of displaced people.

Most of them walk on foot, their exhaustion weighing heavier than their belongings.

Cars stagger forward, running on prayers as fuel shortages shorten their lifespan, just as war shortens those of their owners.

Carts pulled by exhausted animals, sharing the same brutal journey of survival as their human companions.

 Al-Mawasi: A Place Without Refuge

At sunset, we arrive in Al-Mawasi, yet no time is granted to build a tent or find shelter.

Some sleep on the sidewalks, while others are welcomed by strangers who, in an instant, become family.

I thought solidarity had died, until we met Uncle Abu Sand, who lost his brother only twenty days ago, yet his grief did not stop him from offering us shelter in his sorrow-filled home.

We were twenty-five souls…

– Six children under 18. Three elderly over 65.
– Six women, femininity scarred by hardship. Hauling heavy loads, lighting firewood, scrubbing clothes with bare hands, soaking them in seawater that stung their skin with its salinity.
– The rest young men, burdened with responsibilities beyond their years, their youth disappearing under the weight of survival.

The End That Never Comes

Fear, hunger, cold, exhaustion… These are the chapters of our journey, a journey whose beginning is lost and whose end remains unknown.

OUR GRANTS WENT TO…

AJEEC-NISPED, Israel

SAVE A CHILD, UK

RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, Israel

HOPE FLOWERS SCHOOL, Bethlehem Palestine

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Footnotes

Regional news from Prof Sarah Brown.

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Children of Peace is a non-partisan charity organization for Israeli and Palestinian children, aged 4 – 17, and their communities. Our aim is a shared spirit and well-being through arts, education, health and sports. Working for peace, building trust, friendship and reconciliation. So future generations might live peacefully side-by-side. We don’t take sides.

Photo credits.

Gaza pics from Unsplash, Emad El Byed and Khalid Kwaik.
Iran flag came from Wikipedia, Creative Commons.
Israel pics from WikiCommons.
Other images were supplied by the subjects.

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