Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Every Thursday, 14-year-old Natalie al-Hatoum looks forward to one thing. She gets ready early, says goodbye to her mother and heads to the cinema. But this isn’t your typical multiplex.
This is Gaza, which has gone through almost three years of a genocidal Israeli war. There’s a ticket booth and popcorn, but it’s all part of the show – a “cinema experience” rather than the real thing. Instead of a movie screen, there’s a TV, and instead of theatre seats, there are plastic chairs.
The girls who attend the weekly film screenings organised by a charity in Deir el-Balah are all displaced like Natalie and are looking for any kind of escape from the lives they’ve been living since the war started. It makes you feel like you’re not living through the war, like you’re not living through these difficult days,” she says. Natalie is originally from Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood, but she has been living displaced in a single rented room in central Gaza with her family since their home was bombed during the early months of the war, which began in October 2023 and has so far killed more than 73,000 Palestinians.
Natalie and her family only narrowly escaped that attack, and she also lost her grandfather, grandmother and a cousin during the war. I always remember the memories I had with my cousin, and I get very sad.” While Israeli attacks continue in Gaza despite an October ceasefire, Natalie is able to escape her difficult surroundings at a school she attends and by taking part in activities such as the weekly movie sessions at a centre organised by the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations-USA (UOSSM USA). The screenings last about one to two hours and are accompanied by games and other activities.
The programme has grown since its first session when 15 to 20 girls attended. Today, 35 to 40 girls can join a session with many bringing friends after hearing about it from other participants. Fifteen-year-old Rama Abu Mohammed is one of the attendees.
She says entering the centre feels like going into “another world”. They are always there to help us and tell us how we can deal with these situations.” The cinema sessions are particularly meaningful to her because the films are chosen around issues relevant to girls her age. Jehan Abu Zanouna, a psychosocial facilitator who helps run the activity, says the cinema is part of a wider effort to provide children with psychological support.
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