During a brief stint working for UNRWA in Israel Palestine a few years ago I came across a documentary film called ‘No Sharp Objects’. Made by the UN agency, it is about 15 children from Gaza who travel to the US. They meet politicians, go to New York, visit the UN and the Holocaust museum and meet American children. I particularly remember one scene where a dying father tells his son, who is about to go on the trip, to show the world that ‘the people of Gaza have principles and values.’

Mohammed Abulriban was one of the children in that film. We became friends. He is now 18. He lives in the Al Nuseirat Refugee Camp in Gaza. As the most recent slaughter in Gaza has unfolded we in the west have heard comparatively little from the Palestinians who live there and are experiencing it. I asked Mohammad what living in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge has been like. The following was written in the middle of August. – Justin Randle