Gaza children set new kite flying world record

Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip continued their record-setting ways on Thursday when 7,202 children flew just as many kites to set a new world record, a UN agency reported.

	Thousands of Palestinian children flying kites in effort to break the world record in northern Gaza on July 29, 2010
	Photo by: AP

The event, organized by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) came one week after 7,203 Gaza refugee children set a new world record for dribbling basketballs.

On Thursday, 7,202 children, who this summer joined three-week summer-camps run by UNRWA, gathered in an area on the beach of northern Gaza Strip and flew thousands of kites of different colors.

The figure far surpassed the previous mass kite-flying record of 3,000 which was set last year by the Palestinian children in the Gaza.

One of the kites flown bore the name of Catherine Ashton, the European Union Chief of Foreign Policy, who visited the Gaza Strip last week. The kite was sent to greet her for her solidarity with Gaza.

UNRWA Operations Chief John Ging told the children that they have to wait for an official confirmation from the Guinness Book of Records "because the initial information we have is that you managed in getting into the book."

"It's an amazing achievement to break two world records in one week," said Ging, referring to last Thursday's participation of the children in dribbling thousands of basketballs.

"Gaza children are like other children in the world, they have a feeling of living a normal life despite the anomalous situation that they face in their daily lives," Ging said.

Breaking the world's record is part of the summer games organized by UNRWA in 150 summer camps all over the Gaza Strip with the participation of around 250,000 children in different sport and cultural activities.