PARENTS and teachers will gather in Cardiff on Friday to raise awareness of the number of children killed by Israel in Gaza.

Campaigners will stage an empty pushchair walk through the city centre as reports show that about 130,000 children under 10 have died since Israel began its brutal military campaign in October last year.

The deaths have been caused by bombs, bullets, hunger and disease, according to the Save the Children charity.

Asma Saidani, a parent from Cardiff who is taking part in the demonstration, said that the protesters would demand an “end to the suffering of Palestinian children,” the protection of their rights under international law and would also seek to amplify the “urgency of providing them with the opportunity to grow up in peace.”

She insisted that the voices and rights of Palestinian children “must be heard and protected,” adding: “Through actions and protests, I stand in solidarity with Palestinian children and advocate for a future where they can live without fear, where they can have access to education, healthcare, and safety and where their voices are no longer silenced.”

Frankie Finn, a grandparent from Grangetown, said the protesters wanted to make a visual statement, explaining: “We are pushing empty pushchairs to symbolise the terrible absence of the children who have been killed. They are dead, gone, never to return.

“As parents, grandparents, families and teachers, we can watch our children throughout the day. We see them eat, play, get tired and sleep. We know that children in Palestine are being killed, maimed and starved. The scale of this genocide is appalling.

“We need to keep Palestine in the public eye. We need our government to act decisively to ban all arms [sales] to Israel, to impose sanctions, to speak out strongly and consistently for Palestine on the international stage.

“This brutal slaughter of innocent people has to stop.”

Rama Saidani, an intercultural programme specialist and PhD student from Newport who is taking part in the action, said that the 30,755 pupils in Cardiff’s primary schools are almost the equivalent to the 37,000 children estimated to be dead or missing in Gaza.

“Can you imagine Cardiff without a single primary school-aged child?” she said.

“These children were not less human than the children in Wales, nor were they somehow programmed for chaos, fear and suffering.”