Gazans, Moroccans pay tribute to Aylan

Aylan's body was photographed lying face down in the sand near Bodrum last week

GAZA CITY: Palestinians paid tribute to the tiny boy who drowned while fleeing the Syrian war by building a sand sculpture of him Monday on a beach in the Gaza Strip.

The sculpture measuring a few metres (yards) in length depicts three-year-old Aylan Kurdi in the same position and with red and blue clothing like he wore when his lifeless body was found last week.

Aylan's body was photographed lying face down in the sand near Bodrum, one of Turkey's prime tourist resorts, in a bleak image that rapidly went viral on social media.

The sand sculpture is located a short distance from where an Israeli strike killed four Gazan children as they played football during last year's 50-day Gaza war.

Palestinian children put flowers on a sand sculpture depicting Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old boy who drowned off Turkey, on September 7, 2015, on Gaza city. PHOTO: AFP

"When I saw this statue representing Aylan Kurdi, the child drowned while fleeing Syria, I felt a deep sadness and great emotion," said resident Arwa Arbijan.

"It reminded me of the children of the Bakr family who were killed on the Gaza beach during the last war," she told AFP.

Read: The three-year-old who broke the world's heart

Last year on July 16, cousins Ahed Atef Bakr and Zakaria Ahed Bakr, both aged 10, nine-year-old Mohamed Ramez Bakr and 11-year-old Ismail Mohamed Bakr were playing on the beach in Gaza City when they were hit in two separate Israeli air strikes.

At the other end of the Mediterranean, dozens of people paid tribute to Aylan on a Rabat beach on Monday by re-enacting the heart-wrenching scene of how his body was found washed ashore.

PHOTO: AFP

Around 30 people took part, some wearing the same combination of clothes, and lay rooted face-down in the sand for about 20 minutes.

"As an artist, my duty is to react and to come here with my colleagues to say that a small gesture can be worth a lot," said Moroccan actress Latifa Ahrar, one of the organisers.

"We are here to say that the Mediterranean should remain a space for sharing and exchanges, not a barrier for those who are victims of dictatorships, civil wars and terrorism," said journalist Rachid el-Belghiti.