Palestinian-Jordanian climber Mostafa Salameh is ascending Mount Everest carrying a kite filled with handwritten dreams from Gaza’s children. The 56-year-old wants to raise awareness of the war’s toll on the territory’s youngest victims and secure $10 million for the UK-based charity Al-Khair Foundation.

Why is Mostafa Salameh climbing Everest for Gaza’s children?

Salameh is climbing Everest to amplify the voices of Gaza’s children, who cannot speak for themselves on the world stage. He is carrying a kite marked with their handwritten messages and hopes to raise $10 million for humanitarian aid. The climb is both symbolic, giving children a presence at the summit, and practical, funding nutrition, shelter and medical support.

What messages are written on the kite?

Tucked among his expedition gear is a kite in the red, black, white and green of the Palestinian flag. The handwritten messages reflect both ambition and grief: children hoping to become doctors or engineers to rebuild their homes, alongside stark reminders of loss.

One girl, Munira, asked Salameh to write the number 47 on the kite. When he asked why, she told him it was the number of family members she had lost to the war.

“We have all these dreams of the children of Gaza that’s going to go up to the top of the world because they can’t do anything now in Gaza,” Salameh told AFP. “They don’t have homes or education. Everything is being done in a tent. And they don’t have access to clean water, proper food or proper medication.”

What is the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza?

The war, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, has killed more than 72,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority. The conflict has displaced nearly the entire population and reduced large parts of the territory to rubble.

Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in tents. Conditions remain dire despite a ceasefire that took effect in October last year. The Al-Khair Foundation, which Salameh is fundraising for, provides nutrition, sanitation, shelter and psychological support to people in Gaza.

Salameh met the children at the Rafah border after they crossed into Egypt. “The whole world is closing their eyes when it comes to Palestine,” he said. “It’s about awareness on what these children are going through and at the same time to raise money.”

How did Mostafa Salameh become a mountaineer?

Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and raised in a refugee camp, Salameh’s path to mountaineering began with a dream. He was working at a hotel in Edinburgh in 2004, pursuing a career in hospitality, when he dreamed he was standing on the summit of Everest reciting the azan, the Islamic call to prayer.

“This is where the journey started. I had never climbed a mountain in my life before that,” he said. He made his first attempt on the world’s highest peak a year later, at 35, and reached the summit on his third attempt in 2008.

Since then, Salameh has completed the Explorer’s Grand Slam, climbing the highest peak on each continent and skiing to both the North and South Poles. Many of his expeditions have been tied to a cause, raising funds for Syria, blind children and cancer patients.

What is Salameh hoping to achieve beyond the summit?

Although he had vowed not to return to Everest, the war in Gaza gave him a reason to go back. After nine months of preparation, he hopes the climb will produce something both symbolic and tangible.

“I’m a Jordanian originally, my family is from Palestine, and I relate to what these kids are going through,” he said. Salameh is hoping to reach the summit before the spring climbing season closes in the coming weeks.

“When you have some cause that you really believe in, in your heart and soul and mind, I think it can push you to go and do it,” he said. “If we can make a little change, I would be happy.”

His broader aspiration extends well beyond the mountain. “My dream is to see Palestine free one day and that we can go and visit.”