Clowns try to put smiles back on faces of Gaza children

The children of Gaza have little to eat, have had to flee their homes and have survived nearly six months of terrifying Israeli bombardment.

But for a few precious minutes children in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip laughed and yelped with joy.

Clowns and acrobats performed for them in the courtyard of a school where their displaced families have been sheltering from the bombing.

The unrelenting war has taken a terrible toll on Gaza's children.

Most of the 32,490 people killed in the besieged territory since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel have been women and children, according to the health ministry toll.

But for once they could forget all that horror as performers in rabbit costumes led them in a conga, pushing one injured boy in a wheelchair.

Then it was the turn of clown Omar al-Saidi to tickle their funny bones with zany antics at the expense of another jester.

Wassim Lobed, whose support group organised the show and who acted as compere, said: "Traumas are beginning to appear in children so we are trying to provide psychological relief.

"We hope to God that this war will end for the sake of our children in Gaza."

So deep is the mental suffering of Gaza's young that some hope to die quickly to escape the "nightmare", a spokesman for the UN child welfare agency said Tuesday.

"The unspeakable is regularly said in Gaza" now, said UNICEF spokesman James Elder, who is in the territory.

After meeting young people on Monday, he said several teenagers said they were "so desperate for this nightmare to end that they hoped to be killed".

But Saidi, whose clown name is Uncle Zaatar, said he hoped the show had lifted some of that "burden" from the children's shoulders.

As the children clapped and cheered at the end, he said he hoped the "smile will remain on their faces forever".