Students and children in Gaza thank pro-Palestinian protesters at US college campuses

Video from the Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah shows children holding banners with messages that read: “Students of Columbia University, continue to stand by us.”

Dozens of Palestinian students and children staged a display of solidarity at a demonstration in southern Gaza on Sunday to express gratitude for the support seen on US college campuses in recent weeks. Video from the Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah shows children holding banners with messages that read: “Students of Columbia University, continue to stand by us” and, “Violating our right to education and life is a war crime.” The students gathered around makeshift tents near a school that now serves as a shelter for Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza. Footage shows people spray-painting messages of gratitude on the fabric of the tents. “Thank you, students in solidarity with Gaza. Your message has reached (us),” says one of the messages. Takfeer Abu-Yousuf, a displaced student from Beit Hanoun in Northern Gaza, told CNN from the camp he felt it was necessary to thank the students in the US who “supported us with their humanity.” “Those are thank you messages on our tents, those tents that don’t protect us from the heat or cold. The least we can do is thank them. We can’t write these thank you messages on the walls of our homes because we have no homes. They have been destroyed on top of our children, elders, and women,” he said. Eighteen-year-old Rana Al-Taher pointed to the school in the camp, telling CNN that what should have been a place for learning and education has become a place for sheltering.