Upon the start of the summer school vacation, children in the town of "Beit Lahia" in the northern Gaza Strip rush to join a public playground in the town center to practice their favorite sport, "skateboard".
The 15-year-old child, Ahmed, was among the children enrolled in this sport, hoping to help him get rid of the psychological pressures accumulated by the wars on the Strip.
"The violent Israeli raids during the military operations caused me a state of great fear and made me feel like death at any moment," Ahmed told Xinhua, while preparing with a group of his companions to ski down a deep slope in the stadium.
Ahmed suffered a lot from psychological problems and pressures due to the military tensions, especially the latter in May last year, as it made him "nervous and introverted, tending towards violence and not accepting any act that he might not like."
Ahmed explains that "the military war ends, but its memories do not end, as they remain preserved in our memory and deprive us of living in safety or even a sense of hope that the future will be better one day."
But the child found what he wanted by getting rid of those psychological pressures that bothered him all the time, after he started practicing skateboarding, at the age of eight after the end of the Israeli war in 2014.
Ahmed recalls those moments, saying: "After these events ended, my feet were trembling while I was standing on the skateboard before I drove it (...) but after training I was able to use it and move it from place to place."
He adds, "I felt the taste of freedom for the first time in my life when I became a professional in this sport three years ago (...) Here only (in the stadium) I forget my fears and psychological pressure due to the difficult conditions in Gaza."
Al-Sharafi is waiting for the weekly or summer vacation to practice his hobby, saying, "We spend our best time here and stay happy all the time."
Ahmed and Al-Sharafi were among the dozens of children that Ragab Al-Rifi, 26, trained for many months, until they reached the stage of professionalism and creativity in practicing this sport.
Al-Rifi says that skateboarding actually started in the Gaza Strip in 2014 after receiving training from an Italian Sports team that had came to Gaza.
It was not easy to spread the culture of skatebording among th children of the sector, given its danger for the player if he is not able to do it.
But for the passage of time it began to spread more and more by publishing videos on Social networking sites "Facebook" and "Instegram" he said.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics more than 70 percent of population of Gaza suffers from depression and psychological stress due to the deterioration in various aspects of life resulting from the instability that dominates the region.
The psychological expert, Derdah Al-Shaer, expressed his regret that the residents of the Gaza Strip did not receive appropriate psychological treatment sessions that would help them get rid of the difficult psychological pressures they are experiencing as a result of waves of military tension or difficult economic conditions.
The poet says that children and young people in the Gaza Strip resort from time to time to practice different types of hobbies, including sports, in an attempt to get rid of their psychological pressure.
