News, protests at universities and more

Palestinian students hold placards in Rafah, Gaza, on 28 April. (Photo: Tarek Alhellou/CNN).

Dozens of Palestinian students demonstrated in solidarity at a rally in southern Gaza on Sunday to express gratitude for the support on American college campuses in recent weeks.

A video from the Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah shows children holding banners with the messages: “Columbia University students, please continue to support us” and “Violating our right to education and life is a war crime.”

Students gathered around makeshift tents near a school that now serves as a shelter for Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza. The footage showed people spray-painting messages of gratitude on the fabric of the tent, saying: “To the students showing solidarity with Gaza, thank you. Your message has arrived.”

A man writes a thank you message to American students protesting in solidarity with the people of Gaza in a tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, Gaza, on April 27. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images).

Takfir Abu-Youssef, a displaced student from the northern city of Beit Hanoun, told CNN he felt it was important to thank the students in the United States who “supported us with their humanity.”

“We cannot write these messages of gratitude on the walls of our homes because we do not have a home. Apart from our children, elderly people and women, they too have been destroyed.”

Pointing to the camp school, 18-year-old Rana al-Taher told CNN that what should have been a place for learning and education has become a place of refuge.

“It means we have lost our education. We have lost our only hope in Gaza and we want to get it back. We are here to demand it back. “It’s our right to get it back…that’s why we’re here,” he said.