Reclaiming stolen childhoods: swimming classes resume in Gaza after three years of war | Gaza
S.After three years of war, swimming lessons have resumed in Gaza; Hundreds of children are learning to swim, doggy paddle and make their first splashes in five makeshift sea pools built from sandbags and rubble.
The classes allow several hundred boys and girls to step back into their childhood for a few hours, in a place where there are no playgrounds, no formal education and where children live in fear of continued Israeli attacks. A UN survey in March found that 96 percent of children felt death was imminent.
“Swimming gives me a chance to escape from the war and the worries I experience,” said 13-year-old Alma Shabbat, who saw her mother killed in an Israeli attack in May.
After three weeks of classes, his favorite sport became freestyle, he made new friends and is no longer afraid of the waves and the open sea. “Coming to the beach is a very nice and enjoyable experience,” he said.
Amjed Tantesh, who founded Gaza’s first swimming academy more than two decades ago, mobilized dozens of volunteers this summer to create a series of pools on beaches in central Gaza, with tarpaulins providing some shade from the harsh Mediterranean sun.
There was little heavy machinery left in Gaza, so they did everything by hand, moving tons of rubble and filling sandbags to build walls, then digging sand to deepen the pools.
They hold free classes in the mornings for children whose parents were killed in Israeli attacks. In the afternoon the pools are open to everyone and are constantly filled with happy children splashing around in hot water.
“This is a rare chance to enjoy, relax and take back some of their stolen childhood,” said Tantesh, who also works as a journalist for the Guardian and other outlets. His niece, Seham Tantesh, reports to the Guardian from Gaza. “The pools are like giant magnets, attracting children from all over the beach.”
Many Palestinian children have been exposed to extreme trauma for years. There is loss and injury of loved ones; One tenth of the pre-war population is killed or injured in Israeli attacks. It is thought that thousands more people are buried under the rubble.
Gaza has the highest concentration of amputee children in the world. “Disability among Palestinian children has ceased to be an individual medical condition and has now become a defining demographic reality,” the UN commission said in a report on Israel’s targeting of Palestinian children.
The man-made famine caused by Israel’s siege last year will leave some children with lifelong mental and physical developmental delays.
Formal education has not been possible for three years and almost all school buildings have been damaged or destroyed. There are approximately 700,000 school-age children in Gaza, and only a small minority have access to the makeshift tent schools run by aid groups.
Survivors are trapped in crowded, hot and noisy tent camps that lack adequate water and sanitation, in just one-third of pre-war Gaza.
Swimming lessons are a desperately needed escape from this terrifying reality, physically and mentally. “Being here gives me the opportunity to train, play and breathe fresh air away from the tents,” said 10-year-old Maryam al Musri, who lost her father in the war.
Laila Qahman, 14, who lost her seven-year-old brother when a mosque near where she was playing was bombed and dreams of becoming a pharmacist, said swimming gave her the opportunity to relax, cool down and forget about tent life.
“I come here every two days because it makes me feel like I’m living my life and enjoying my time, instead of living in fear and sadness by staying in the tent and listening to the sounds of shelling,” he said.
“Before I learned to swim, I was a little afraid of the sea and did not have the courage to go into the water. Now I am much more confident and I am no longer afraid when swimming.”
So far, 700 children have attended the six-week classes, and Tantesh hopes to teach thousands more over the summer if he can find funds to pay teachers who are currently working without pay and cover other basic expenses.
The joy of these young swimmers is good for him too; The brothers, who fled their families last year under Israel’s evacuation order, mourn the death of their older brother Bahjat, a karate champion who was killed in an Israeli attack.
“It was Bahjat who taught me to swim in the first place, later inspiring me to pursue excellence in the sport as a young man,” he said. “Having him die in my arms was the worst thing imaginable.”
The original academy was inspired by hope and tragedy in equal measure. Palestine participated in the Olympics for the first time in the Atlanta Games in 1996, giving Gazan athletes the chance to compete on the world’s biggest stage, and giving Tantesh a new mission.
“I wanted to participate in the Olympics, but I started professional swimming at a very late age. So I decided to realize my dream through the new generation,” he said.
Closer to home, there were deaths from drowning at sea every summer. Families flocked to the beach to relax, splash and cool off, but few people could swim and there were no lifeguards at the local beach. He decided swimming lessons would make children safer and help them train future lifeguards.
When classes first started, the biggest challenge was convincing parents to enroll their children. “People were afraid of water, the sea seemed like a monster to them, consuming dozens of people every year,” he said.
For the first few years, children learned to swim in the Gaza port, where breakwaters protected the children from the waves. He later built a series of pools along the coast for lessons where approximately 11,000 people learned to swim.
The largest, built from the rubble of houses bombed by Israel in 2014, was more than 1,000 square meters. Since 2023, Israeli attacks have destroyed entire pools, killed dozens of swimming students and at least six coaches, and injured many more.
Restarting classes seemed almost impossible. “I only had the sea, but the sea is dangerous even in summer. You have jellyfish, you have high waves, you have strong currents, you have rocks,” he said.
So he came up with a plan to build new pools for the sake of the children in Gaza and in memory of his brother. Seeing children leave the horror of war behind, even if only for a short time, when they dive into the sea is healing for him, too.
“Actually, the first person I helped on this project was myself,” he said. “This gave me a great sense of happiness and recovery. I am alive again.”
You can find out more about the swimming pool project Here
