https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ek5watkfsbjnjk/VRP79818.mp4?dl=0
Youngsters in war-torn Gaza are finding hope – by doing parkour free-running through the rubble of homes destroyed by bombs.
The kids perform the extreme stunts by leaping and tumbling across the concrete and steel ruins of houses obliterated in the decades-old conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Children gather among the debris to cheer as the watch the teenagers spring across the dusty pathways and smashed-up concrete.
Parkour athlete Abdullah Al-Qassab said it was a way to express their feelings of hope and to find freedom and normality from the war besieging the Gaza Strip.
He said: ‘Parkour is a kind of art. It’s more than a sport because we can do this to express our feelings, to express our movements and physical skills.
‘Right now, we are here in this place of destruction. We come here to train because we want to be free. We want to feel that freedom inside us, to use these kinds of obstacles so we can be free, the same as outside Gaza.’
Abdullah is part of the PK Gaza parkour team, as well as the Wallrunners – a movement that aims to immerse Gazan youth in sports to help them get through their social and political situation.
He added: ‘We are here in Gaza despite what’s happening. What happened here is a kind of massacre – something you can’t even believe because of the situation.
‘But we are trying to send the message that there is talent in Gaza. We can use such destructive places for something good, to tell the world that this is Gaza, we are never, ever giving up.’