Save the Children is shocked and saddened by the loss of life on-board the Free Gaza Movement flotilla. This tragedy serves to highlight the urgent need to end the blockade of Gaza that means 780,000 Palestinian children are now living without adequate food, water or medical attention.
Israel’s tight restriction of goods and people in and out of Gaza, in place now since 2007, means that three quarters of the 1.5 million Palestinians living there depend on food aid to survive.
Jasmine Whitbread, Chief Executive of Save the Children, said: “Children in Gaza are hungry because of the restrictions on bringing food into the area. Children are growing up without an education because of damage to school buildings that cannot be repaired because of restrictions on the movement of building material. Some children have even died because they weren’t able to leave Gaza to get the medical attention they needed. It is children who are suffering most as a result of this blockade.”
Until the blockade on Gaza’s borders is lifted, the health and psychological well-being of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children living in Gaza will remain at risk with potentially devastating consequences for the future of the region.
Jasmine Whitbread said: “Israel must allow full access in and out of Gaza for goods and people - it is the responsibility of the international community to ensure that this blockade ends immediately. The lives of hundreds of thousands of children depend on it.”
Save the Children has been working in Gaza since 1973 to help provide food, water, medical assistance, education and psychological support to children there.