‘Children Here Never Grow Up’: Jackie Chan Moved to Tears by Gaza Footage
By Palestine Chronicle Staff
Jackie Chan became visibly emotional after watching a video from Gaza, saying a Palestinian child’s words about never growing up revealed the devastating reality facing children under war.
Legendary actor Jackie Chan made headlines on Wednesday after becoming visibly emotional while speaking about a video showing the suffering of children in Gaza during a promotional event for his film.
The 71-year-old star said the words of a Palestinian child in the video left him shaken to the core.
Speaking during a recent public appearance, Chan recalled watching footage in which a child from Gaza was asked a simple question: what he wanted to become when he grew up.
The child’s response, Chan said, was devastating. “Children here never get to grow up,” the boy replied.
Chan said that from the moment the child began speaking, he lost control of his emotions. “As soon as I heard him, my tears started falling,” he said. “I couldn’t endure it.”
The actor explained that the boy’s tone — quiet, steady, almost detached — made the moment even more devastating. “There was no expression on his face,” Chan added. “He was already used to death.”
Reflecting on what he had witnessed, Chan spoke at length about how war reshapes a child’s understanding of life and time. He said the video forced him to confront the reality that for many children in Gaza, the idea of a future is not abstract — it is absent.
“We ask children what they want to be when they grow up,” he said, “but for them, growing up itself is uncertain.”
Chan also reflected on how people often fear aging, while failing to recognize it as a privilege denied to millions living under violence. “People are afraid of getting old,” he said. “But being able to grow old is actually a blessing life gives you.” Pausing, he added, “Those children may never reach that blessing.”
The actor emphasized that what haunted him most was not just the suffering depicted in the video, but the normalization of it. He said the child’s matter-of-fact response revealed how deeply violence has become woven into daily life. “When a child can say something like that without emotion,” Chan said, “it tells you everything about the world they are living in.”
Israel’s war of extermination against Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023, and has continued for over two years, has left catastrophic human and material losses.
More than 71,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 171,000 wounded, the majority of them women and children. Entire neighborhoods have been leveled, critical infrastructure destroyed, and living conditions rendered uninhabitable, with reconstruction costs estimated to reach tens of billions of dollars.
(The Palestine Chronicle)