On May 21, 2026, at 10.48 am, a kite in the colors of the Palestinian flag reached the top of Everest. It was worn by the Italian mountaineer Leonardo Avezzano, who climbed to the roof of the world as part of an expedition organized by the Jordanian-Palestinian mountaineer Mostafa Salameh with a specific objective: to draw attention to the consequences of the war on the children of Gaza.
Children’s dreams were written on the kite. Not metaphors, not slogans: real dreams, collected by those who live under the rubble of a war that destroyed homes, schools, hospitals and playgrounds.
These are dreams: all children have dreams and they can make them come true if we help them,
Salameh said.
View this post on Instagram
In Gaza everything is more difficult. That’s why we needed the whole world to know. And what better way to do it than to bring all this to the roof of the world?
View this post on Instagram
Salameh, who led the expedition, failed to reach the summit. But he wanted the message to get through anyway.
These dreams will come true, he said. Because these children are resilient, they remain on their land despite everything you see in Gaza. It’s all destroyed. But they are still there.
The climb was anything but simple. The mountain was crowded, the wait at altitude interminable, the air increasingly rarefied. Hours of traffic on the high routes of Everest, each step heavier than the previous one. When Avezzano was asked what kept him going, the response was immediate: “The children of Gaza.”
The first thing I thought of doing, once I reached the summit, was to raise the flag, raise the kite and dedicate this effort we have made to the children of Gaza,
said the Italian mountaineer. A dedication made at 8,849 meters, in the highest place on the planet, where there is no air and every gesture weighs twice as much.
The mission, supported by the Rising Dreams Mission and the Al Khair UK organisation, does not end with the descent from the mountain.
The climb may be over, but the mission is not,
Salameh wrote.
Because tonight, somewhere, a child in Gaza still clings to a dream. And as long as they still dream, we must never stop climbing.
