AN ESTIMATED 130,000 children under 10 have been trapped for 50 days without access to food or medical aid in northern Gaza, a charity warned today.
According to Save the Children, the area is almost entirely inaccessible to aid workers, cutting Palestinians off from supplies despite warnings of famine.
Those in northern Gaza have been cut off from food, water and medical aid since October 6, when Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) declared the area a closed military zone.
Israel ignored pleas from the UN to halt its “blatant disregard for basic humanity” later that month.
The UN warned that the whole of North Gaza governorate was at risk of dying, but the IDF has repeatedly denied or impeded attempts by aid groups to access the area.
A mother of two, who works for a partner organisation of Save the Children in northern Gaza, shared her harrowing experience.
She said: “I am trapped with my children under relentless bombs, rockets, and bullets, with nowhere to run.
“My mother is paralysed, and I cannot leave her behind. My brother has been killed, my husband was taken, and I don’t know if he’s alive.
“Our home was destroyed over our heads, and we survived by a miracle.
“With no food, no clean water, and constant fear, both my children have developed rashes, and my daughter is passing blood, but there is no medicine, no help, and absolutely nothing I can do.”
Save the Children says it has food parcels for 5,000 families and 725 hygiene kits but has been unable to deliver to the area for over seven weeks.
A consultant employed by the charity, using the pseudonym Jawad, said: “We struggle with the shortages of children’s food. And it’s insanely expensive if available.
“A box of formula milk is 80 shekels [£17.50].”
“We no longer have hospitals, medical supplies or teams.
“We try to keep our children as healthy as possible.
“But unfortunately, due to the lack of nutrition, our children do not have strong immunity.”
Labour MP Jon Trickett called the report “chilling,” demanding: “Arms sales to Israel should be halted.
“No law-abiding government should be providing armaments to a foreign power led by a fugitive who is wanted by the International Criminal Court.”
Britain continues to export weapons under 332 arms licences to Israel, including components for the lethal F-35 fighter jet.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal said: “Israel has ignored the steps demanded by the ICJ following its ruling that the case that Israel was committing genocide was plausible — in particular that it does not create conditions that could lead to the destruction of the population and must allow access to humanitarian aid.
“The Save the Children report makes clear in horrific detail how Israel’s continuation of genocidal policies is impacting children.”
According to the UN, 44 per cent of those killed by Israeli forces are children, and the largest category of children killed are between the ages of five and nine-years-old — a reality which Mr Jamal says “should chill every decent human being to their marrow.”
He added: “That our government continues to arm the state committing these grotesque crimes should enrage them and encourage them to take action — including by joining boycott and divestment campaigns.”
The death toll in Gaza has reached over 44,000, although a study in the Lancet medical journal has suggested the true number could be as high as 186,000.
