Painted backpacks offer children in Gaza some sense of normality

LONDON: As children in the Gaza Strip return to school after nearly three years of disruption, they are also turning up at artist Maysa Yousef’s door with their plain, light-blue backpacks, distributed by aid agencies, and specific requests for decoration: a rocket ship, perhaps, or a princess, a horse. When Yousef hands the bags back, transformed with the images they chose, the children leave smi