Israel-Hamas war: With more than a month of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Palestinian children in Gaza have now released a heartfelt video calling for peace and their wants for basic necessities like food, medicine, education.
The video shared by Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy, showed Palestinian children in Gaza holding a news conference outside Al Shifa hospital, where they had sought refuge. The main hospital in Gaza City has turned into a giant refuge for people whose homes have been bombarded, or who fear that they will be, in Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip, which is entering its second month.
“We want to live. We want peace. We want food, medicine and education. Not bombs… we want to live as the other children live,” a boy said in a heartfelt video. The situation is not unique to Al Shifa. The World Health Organization estimates 122,000 displaced Gazans are sheltering in hospitals, churches and other public buildings across the strip, with a further 827,000 in schools.
Thousands of displaced Gazans are crammed into every available area inside Al Shifa Hospital, sleeping in landings or corridors, passing the hours of the day in stairwells, or hanging laundry on the roof. They are even housed under improvised canvas shelters in the parking lot.
Um Haitham Hejela, a woman sheltering with young children in an improvised tent fashioned from fabric, string and mats told Reuters, “We ran from our house because of the heavy air strikes.” “The situation is getting worse day after day,” she said. “There is no food, no water. When my son goes to pick up water, he queues for three or four hours in the line. They struck bakeries, we don’t have bread,” she told Reuters.
Over 10,300 Palestinians have died in Gaza after a month of nonstop shelling following the Hamas offensive, with two-thirds of them being women and children, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-run region. It is estimated that around 2,300 people are buried as a result of strikes that destroyed whole city blocks.
There have been increasing international calls for a ceasefire or “pause” in fighting. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday there will be no fuel delivered to Gaza and no ceasefire with Hamas unless hostages seized by the Palestinian militants are freed.
The UN has expressed concerns and said that Gaza is “becoming a graveyard for children”, CNN reported.
While speaking to reporters in New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis. It is a crisis of humanity.” He added that the need for a ceasefire is becoming “more urgent with every passing hour,” as reported by ANI.
“The parties to the conflict–and, indeed, the international community–face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop this inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza,” he said. The UN Secretary-General’s comments come four weeks after Israel declared war on Hamas, following the terrorist organisation’s October 7 attack that killed 1,400 people in Israel and saw about 240 others kidnapped. The UN chief also informed that 89 staff members of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have also been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began a month ago.
The Israel-Hamas war started on October 7 when fighters from the Islamist group burst out of the Gaza Strip and into southern Israel. According to Israel, Hamas militants killed some 1,400 people — mostly civilians — and seized more than 240 hostages, in the worst attack on the nation since its founding in 1948.
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