Save the Children: What we are seeing in Gaza is ‘the depths of hell’

What the world is witnessing in Gaza “looks like the depths of hell”, Middle East Regional Director for Save the Children, Jeremy Stoner, said in a statement released yesterday.

“What we’re seeing now in Gaza looks like the depths of hell with reports day after day of attacks on children and families. Nowhere is safe,” Stoner said.

Residents of northern Gaza have been deprived of food for two weeks, he added, noting that “In the north, an already starving population has been cut off from food for two weeks while trying to dodge bombs and bullets in a kill zone they cannot leave.”

The Israeli occupation army continues its invasion of the northern Gaza Strip for the tenth consecutive day, amidst a complete siege and starvation that prevents the entry of food, drink and fuel, into the area which is under constant violent bombing.

Israel is trying to displace Palestinians from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south, amid Palestinian accusations that Tel Aviv is working to occupy the area and empty it of its residents.

Stoner pointed out that

Evacuation orders are at risk of becoming execution orders as children are denied the means to survive.

“What military goals could justify such mass-scale slaughter of civilians? The notion of collateral damage must never be used to excuse the predictable killing of children,” he added.

Stoner noted that “Save the Children has begun a second round of polio vaccines for children in our Deir Al-Balah clinic, as children face bombs and fire just 500m away,” adding, “Never has it been clearer that this is a war on children, their protection only upheld if they’re deemed a risk to those beyond their borders. Without a ceasefire, these vaccinations simply postpone rather than prevent children’s pain.”

READ: Israel threatens 400,000 Palestinians in northern Gaza with starvation