Popcorn and cartoons: A Gaza cinema gives girls a brief escape from war

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.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Israeli strikes hit water plant, warehouse in Gaza, killing at least sevenlist 2 of 3Why Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in West Bank are pogromslist 3 of 3Israel accused of using kites as pretext to justify escalating Gaza attacksend of listInstead 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.“I really like the cinema because it gives us a change of atmosphere. It makes you feel like you’re not living through the war, like you’re not living through these difficult days,” ...