00:00I'm Mohammed. I'm 16 years old. I came to the UK four months ago. I stand here to share my story
00:08from Palestine, especially from Gaza. One of the main reasons that drives everything that we do
00:15here. I am Palestinian. I lived here most of my life. I've been here for a number of years now.
00:20Just for the last two years. But since the education started in Palestine,
00:24words do matter. People are not dying. And after one week, we were told, we were told to go south
00:35because it was supposed to be safe, but there's no safety. We began living a life I would not wish
00:43to anyone, searching every day for water to drink and wash with no electricity, no food,
00:50no hospital, no communication, pumping and destroying anything moving on the ground.
00:56It is destroyed, as far as you can see, not one property undamaged. Throughout the bombardment
01:05and the invasion, the Liberal Democrats and I have called for a ceasefire, for sanctions
01:10on Netanyahu, his ministers and his government, and a ban on military exports from the UK.
01:17Although we have a ceasefire now, it is in name only. People are still being killed, and they are starving.
01:26Here, today, taking part in this vigil, people across Wokey, across Surrey, across the UK and the world beyond,
01:35I've watched in horror as tragedy after tragedy is taking place in Gaza. Homes, hospitals, schools,
01:45places of worship, community spaces, all reduced to rubble.
01:49In the morning, we saw tanks only one kilometer from where we were staying, and in apparent chaos,
01:56we took whatever we could carry and fell to the last place under bombing, Rafah, the final border
02:03between Gaza and Egypt. We stayed in Rafah for three months while the bombing continued intensely.
02:10Thank you so much.
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