Displaced children in Gaza fear bombardment

Displaced Gazan children clapped, sang and jumped up and down clasping a giant multi-coloured parachute, rare moments of fun as the truce between Israel and Hamas gave an opportunity for a youth group to entertain them in a school courtyard.

The children stood in a large circle around a row of yellow plastic cones, with entertainers dressed up in costumes of cartoon characters, as adults looked on, leaning on the railings of the school's upper floors which overlooked the courtyard.

Clothes were hanging on the railings, and people had suspended pieces of fabric across doorways and along corridors to provide a modicum of privacy in what was now a living space rather than an educational setting.

The war has turned Gaza's schools into overcrowded camps for displaced people, where children have been enduring the fear of bombardment, displacement from their homes and shortages of food, water and electricity.

Wednesday was the sixth day of a truce between Israel and Hamas that has allowed for the release of some Israeli and foreign hostages as well as Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. More aid trucks have been allowed into Gaza. Diplomatic efforts were underway to try and extend the truce.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an assault on Gaza that has killed more than 15,000 people, four in ten of them children, according to health officials there. It has displaced most of the population into schools and camps.