GAZA CITY: Mohammed Al-Sheikh is only 12 and feels trapped in Gaza but he dreams of a Guinness world record for a series of stunning backflips and his almost unbelievable body contortions.
Mohammed, just 1.37 meters tall and weighing 29 kg, can bend his body in seemingly impossible ways, throwing his feet over his shoulders with reckless abandon or jumping into a spider-like pose.
His antics earned this young Palestinian from the Gaza Strip the nickname of “Spiderman,” a mantle which fills him with pride.
Mohammed found fame just after a devastating war in Gaza with Israel that left over 2,000 Palestinians dead in 2014.
Despite the 50-day conflict interrupting his training, he appeared on the TV show “Arabs Got Talent” in Lebanon, where his body-bending act won 14 million votes.
Though he didn’t win, he now hopes to writhe his way into the Guinness Book of Records from his home in the Tel Al-Hawa area of southern Gaza City.
Mohammed can perform four acrobatic moves better than anyone else on earth, his coach Mohammed Lubbad, 26, insists.
In an e-mail seen by AFP, Guinness accepted his bid for a record entitled: “Most full body revolutions maintaining a chest stand in one minute.”
In the video submitted as evidence, Mohammed lies on the floor with his chest pressed into the ground.
His legs then spin around at 360 degrees — his feet touching the ground at every angle in a feat of amazing dexterity.
The hardest thing, he says, is not contorting his body into unbelievable shapes — though Israel’s 10-year blockade of the strip means he can only learn via YouTube videos.
“Many Arabs and people across the world support me by clicking ‘Like’ on my videos on Facebook, and it makes me sad not being able to meet and interact with the world because of the blockade,” Mohammed said.
Today, even if he impresses his classmates, his mother, 48, insists it should not undermine the education of the youngest of her eight children.
So he is left with escapism — braving danger carrying out stunts on the back of a camel or a horse galloping on a Gaza beach, to the amazement of flabbergasted onlookers.
There, he said, he feels “free.”
“I’m in the air and there is no blockade.”
Mohammed, just 1.37 meters tall and weighing 29 kg, can bend his body in seemingly impossible ways, throwing his feet over his shoulders with reckless abandon or jumping into a spider-like pose.
His antics earned this young Palestinian from the Gaza Strip the nickname of “Spiderman,” a mantle which fills him with pride.
Mohammed found fame just after a devastating war in Gaza with Israel that left over 2,000 Palestinians dead in 2014.
Despite the 50-day conflict interrupting his training, he appeared on the TV show “Arabs Got Talent” in Lebanon, where his body-bending act won 14 million votes.
Though he didn’t win, he now hopes to writhe his way into the Guinness Book of Records from his home in the Tel Al-Hawa area of southern Gaza City.
Mohammed can perform four acrobatic moves better than anyone else on earth, his coach Mohammed Lubbad, 26, insists.
In an e-mail seen by AFP, Guinness accepted his bid for a record entitled: “Most full body revolutions maintaining a chest stand in one minute.”
In the video submitted as evidence, Mohammed lies on the floor with his chest pressed into the ground.
His legs then spin around at 360 degrees — his feet touching the ground at every angle in a feat of amazing dexterity.
The hardest thing, he says, is not contorting his body into unbelievable shapes — though Israel’s 10-year blockade of the strip means he can only learn via YouTube videos.
“Many Arabs and people across the world support me by clicking ‘Like’ on my videos on Facebook, and it makes me sad not being able to meet and interact with the world because of the blockade,” Mohammed said.
Today, even if he impresses his classmates, his mother, 48, insists it should not undermine the education of the youngest of her eight children.
So he is left with escapism — braving danger carrying out stunts on the back of a camel or a horse galloping on a Gaza beach, to the amazement of flabbergasted onlookers.
There, he said, he feels “free.”
“I’m in the air and there is no blockade.”
