A bicycle adventure across Gaza
A team of five adventurers crossed the Gaza Strip on bicycle from north to south in a bid to draw attention to the youths’ inability to travel and study abroad.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — At dawn on Aug. 31, five young men from the town of Khuza’a, east of Khan Yunis — which Israel destroyed during the 2014 Gaza war — started an adventure that is the first of its kind. They hope to attract the world’s attention to their demand of breaking the blockade so they can travel abroad to complete their studies outside the Gaza Strip. The young men roamed Gaza’s neighborhoods from north to south on their bicycles. The trip lasted a week, during which time they slept on the roads and the seashore. They call themselves “The Five Adventurers.”
The Five Adventurers — Islam al-Najjar, Alaa and Adham Kodeih, Abel Raouf Abu Ruk and Abdullah Abu Mutlaq — graduated with honors from the same class in high school, from the scientific branch, in 2016. They agreed to complete their university studies together abroad, as they like adventure and wish to visit new places, and because the study fields they are interested in are not available in Gaza universities.
Najjar, 18, the team’s spokesman, told Al-Monitor, “After graduating from high school, we applied for scholarships to complete our studies abroad. But unfortunately we could not leave because of the blockade and the crossings’ closure.”
He said that they resorted to an initiative that would draw the attention of the concerned authorities, such as the Ministry of Education and the government, to their demands by going on a bicycle adventure that defied all odds, especially since they are from Khuza’a, which was destroyed by Israeli heavy shelling during the recent war on the Gaza Strip. Najjar added that his home was partially demolished and that the home of another team member was completely destroyed and he now lives in a wooden caravan.
