Braving the constant threat of airstrikes and bombings, 15-year-old Youssef Saad, a Gazan oud player, rides his bicycle through the conflict-ravaged streets of northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, his instrument strapped to his back, Reuters reports.

Saad sings for children who have endured daily horrors in 11 months of conflict, trying to offer them a little joy or distraction.

“The homes in my city were once full of dreams,” Saad said, gazing at the rubble of the decades-old urban refugee camp, which before the war was built-up and heavily populated.

“Now, they’re gone,” he says.

Saad was studying at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in nearby Gaza City before it was reduced to ruins in the conflict that has devastated much of the enclave.

Now, living with relatives after his own home was destroyed, he is one of five siblings whose futures have been upended.

Opinion

Geopolitical shift in ME

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A prolonged conflict will have far-reaching implications for regional geopolitics, sharpening the divisions among Gulf countries that are directly affected by the tensions.

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