YOUNGSTERS from Palestine will be performing in a theatre show as part of the Totnes Fringe Festival this weekend.

Welcome To Gaza by the Hands Up Project, is being performed on Friday and Saturday (July 10 and 11) at Totnes Civic Hall as part of Totnes Fringe Festival.

The show is then touring to the Edinburgh Fringe before heading to Palestine House, London, and Greenbelt Festival, Kettering.

Welcome To Gaza is made up of 19 short plays by children from Gaza and the West Bank, written pre- October 7 2023, woven into a continuous 90-minute play.

Directed by award-winning local playwright Peter Oswald, who recently completed a Pilgrimage for Palestine in March 2025, Welcome to Gaza tells stories of what life is really like in Gaza and the West Bank, giving an insight into what it’s like to be a child growing up in the midst of a genocide.

“Welcome To Gaza burst into the world a year ago with a public reading at the Marylebone Theatre featuring Harriet Walter,” said Peter Oswald.

“Now some of the originators of the plays, exiles from Gaza, are travelling to Britain to stage a full production at the Totnes, Edinburgh and Greenbelt festivals and at Palestine House in London. This is a momentous cultural event, a cry from the heart of Gaza right in the heart of Britain.”

Hands Up Project is a charity trust which, through its network of volunteers, connects children around the world with young people in Palestine.

By means of online interaction, drama and storytelling activities, children living in Palestine get the chance to write plays, stories and poems, sharing their experiences across the globe. Many of the Hands Up Project team, includingits founder Nick Bilborough are based in Totnes.

Tickets for the production can be purchased on the Totnes Pulse website: https:// www.totnespulse.co.uk/totnesfringe.