RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — More than 7,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip simultaneously dribbled basketballs for five minutes on Thursday in an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records, Gaza’s top U.N. aid official said.
The event took place on a bombed-out airport runway near the southern Gaza town of Rafah. It was part of the U.N.’s summer camps for about 250,000 Gaza children.
The U.N. and Gaza’s militant Islamic Hamas rulers hold rival summer camps that compete for the hearts and minds of Gaza’s next generation. Almost half of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents are children under 15.
Organizers say the U.N. camps try to instill hope in a better future through fun and games, while Hamas’ camps teach anti-Israeli doctrine and military-style marching, along with horseback riding, swimming and Islam. Hamas says about 100,000 children will attend its camps this year.
Buses brought children from all over Gaza for Thursday’s basketball bounce at the Gaza International Airport, which has been closed and repeatedly bombed by Israel since the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising in 2000. After Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, Israeli warplanes continued to target the airport as a militant training base.
As music blared from loudspeakers, the children awaited a cue from organizers before dribbling their balls.
U.N. spokesman Chris Gunness said more than 200 monitors reported that 7,203 children finished the drill. Many tossed their balls in the air in celebration after passing the five-minute mark.
Local U.N. chief John Ging said he expected to know in a few days if the children had set the record. The previous record was set in 2007 in Indiana.
Some found the event inspiring.
“I hope one day I can fly from this airport to the world as member of Palestine’s national basketball team,” said Salma Hassan, 11.
Gunness said a Finnish company donated 60 balls and sold more than 7,000 to the U.N. for 10 euros ($13) each, a quarter of the retail price.
Gaza’s children set their first world record last year by simultaneously flying more than 3,000 kites, Gunness said. They’ll try to break that record at a U.N. event next week, he said.
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