Children from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip have broken the world record for dribbling basketballs, a United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) official said Friday.
Adnan Abu Hasna, UNRWA's spokesman in Gaza, told the German Press Agency dpa, that 7,203 children in summer camps supervised by the international organization took part in the effort on Thursday, DPA reported.
They broke the previous world record for dribbling basketballs set
in the state of Indiana in the United States in 2007, where 3,054 people dribbled all at once.
The UNRWA schoolchildren, aged between 6 and 15, all stood in carefully designed patterns comprising squares painted on the runway, and dribbled for 15 minutes.
"I believe that the Gaza Strip children managed to send two messages to the world. The first is that if those children are given the opportunity, they will be the first in the world," said Abu Hasna.
The second, he said, was that they drew attention to Gaza's isolation and Israeli blockade, by holding the event at the defunct Gaza Airport, destroyed by Israel.
"The event was very successful and the kids all received a complementary gift of one original basketball each," said Abu Hasna.
"We are all happy. We never dreamt of breaking world records," said Hanan, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl who participated in the event.
John Ging, chief of operations at UNRWA, told the children that "this event is just a message to everybody that you are brilliant kids and you are the world champions."
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