maree pardy 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

Even now, I still don’t understand why children’s toys are banned from entering Gaza. We are talking about dolls, balls, simple toys, and even kites, as if they are something dangerous or weapons capable of threatening an entire city. For more than three years, children have been deprived of the simplest things that should be part of their childhood. Children in Gaza have no safe places to play, no parks, no normal schools, and no life that resembles the lives of children anywhere else. They have grown up among rubble and tents, learning fear, displacement, and loss before learning how to play. Even small moments of joy have become incredibly rare. Every truck entering Gaza is thoroughly inspected and monitored, yet children’s toys remain banned. What danger could there possibly be in a doll, a ball, or a kite? The world talks about humanity and children’s rights, while the children of Gaza are denied even their most basic right: to play. The war may end one day and homes may be rebuilt, but the years stolen from these children’s childhoods will never come back. A home can be rebuilt, but you cannot bring back a child’s laughter, years of play, or the childhood memories they were supposed to have. An entire generation is growing up without ever knowing what childhood was supposed to be.