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Save the Children warns that the lack of a ceasefire “condemns children to perish in hell on earth”
Danish Refugee Council warns of risk of unactivated explosives for people searching for goods in rubble
MADRID, 25 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Around 130,000 Palestinian children under ten years of age are without food and medicine due to the new military offensive and the siege launched more than a month and a half ago by the Israeli Army in the north of the Gaza Strip, according to reports this Monday the non-governmental organization Save the Children.
The NGO has stressed that the children have been trapped for 50 days in areas in the north of the enclave that are almost completely inaccessible to humanitarian personnel, so they do not receive food or medical supplies despite warnings about famine, amid criticism of Israel for restrictions on the delivery of aid to Gaza.
Thus, he has stated that Palestinian children living in those areas have been almost totally deprived of food, water and medicine since October 6, when Israel declared the area a closed military area in the face of a new ground offensive in the area. which has led the Famine Review Committee to state that famine is imminent or already occurring.
For this reason, Save the Children has specified that it has been unable to access northern Gaza for more than seven weeks to deliver food packages for 5,000 families, along with 725 hygiene kits and other relief supplies. Previously, it had been able to intervene through local partners to distribute aid to some 15,000 children.
Added to this is that some 10,000 children living in Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanun did not receive the second dose of the polio vaccine in the recent vaccination campaign, while Israel continues to carry out attacks against the Kamal Aduan Hospital, one of the two that partially operate in the north of the enclave.
For all these reasons, the general director of the NGO in the Middle East, Jeremy Stoner, has said that the situation in this area is not suitable for human survival. “Humanitarian aid has hit rock bottom and the terrible situation in northern Gaza is the tip of a terrible iceberg,” he explained.
Stoner has called for “immediate safe humanitarian access” so that “food, water, winter supplies and medical assistance reach those trapped in the area.” “The international community must step forward and ensure that this is the case, in accordance with its obligations. Without access and a ceasefire, we are condemning children to perish in hell on earth,” he lamented.
In this sense, Ruba, a woman who works with a collaborating organization of the NGO, has reported that she is “trapped” in the north of the Gaza Strip with her two children “under incessant bombs, rockets and bullets, without any place to flee to.”
“My mother has a disability and I cannot leave her behind. They have killed my brother, they have taken my husband and I don’t know if he is alive. Our house was destroyed above our heads, and we survived by a miracle,” said the woman, identified through a fictitious name for security reasons.
“With no food, no clean water and constant fear, my two children have developed rashes and my daughter is passing blood, but there is no medicine, there is no help and I can do absolutely nothing. They cry and ask me why we can’t leave, why why his father is not with us, why we can’t return to a normal life,” Ruba added.
RISKS DUE TO EXPLOSIVES
On the other hand, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has warned of the risk that undetonated explosive devices pose to the Gazan population, especially as they search through the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel’s attacks to try to find clothing and other items. basic goods.
The agency has noted in a report that Gaza residents are constantly fleeing areas of active conflict, often returning to areas considered dangerous. Thus, 70 percent of those surveyed by the NGO have indicated that they have returned to areas that witnessed active combat, which increases the risk from unactivated explosives.
Thus, he detailed that the situation is worsened by the lack of humanitarian aid, which during the last six weeks has fallen to 40 trucks a day, well below the 500 a day registered before the start of the offensive, unleashed after the attacks. carried out on October 7, 2023 by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and other Palestinian factions.
The DRC has insisted that this is aggravated by the “almost total” blockade of the entry of commercial goods, reduced to only two trucks a day during said period. As a result, 58 percent of those surveyed have had to search through the rubble to find goods and materials, including clothing for their children.
In addition, 23 percent of them have said that they knew someone who had died or been injured by the explosion of these devices during these tasks, in addition to cases of children playing with these devices and people mistakenly taking them after mistaking them for firewood. . This type of weaponry has been used in civilian areas, which violates International Humanitarian Law.
For this reason, the executive director of the NGO for the Middle East, Lilu Thapa, has stated that “the population of Gaza puts their lives in danger just to give their children some clothes.” “They face threats from all directions,” he lamented.
Thapa has stressed that Palestinians also face “the threat of death from hunger due to the virtual total blockade of goods”, “the constant risk of bombs and casualties” and “the ever-present danger of unexploded ordnance, a threat that will last long after the end of the fighting.