Children in Gaza 'must be protected': Save the Children

WASHINGTON

The children in the Gaza Strip "must be protected" while their rights have been violated due to ongoing war, president of Save the Children US said on Friday.

"Every war is a war against the child. This is sadly still true today, especially in Gaza. In this conflict, 14,000 children have been violently killed, thousands more are missing, presumed buried under the rubble," Janti Soeripto told a Security Council meeting.

"If I were to sit here and read the name and age of every Israeli and Palestinian child who died on and after October 7, it would take me over 18 hours," she said.

Stressing that the children are "not small adults," Soeripto said they have a special status in conflict, specific vulnerabilities and an additional set of rights afforded to them and distinct obligations owed to them.

Soeripto said she was in Gaza last week, and saw the children starving to death.

"The first thing that struck me when I arrived in Gaza last week was how many children there were, how many of them were actually running around without shoes over glass and rubble and debris, running around, desperately looking for food and water because not enough is being allowed into Gaza. They were visibly demonstrably malnourished," she added.

Underlying that 80% of education facilities in Gaza have been destroyed, she said "education is in many ways life-saving, but not in Gaza, where every single child is out of school."

She criticized the world leaders who emphasize the importance of access, call for deconfliction, protection of civilians, speedy investigations, and uphold humanitarian law.

"This discourse creates a false impression that the humanitarian system in Gaza is being prioritized. Stop pretending the protection of civilians is prioritized here.

"We are overwhelmed with impediments. Human life is not being prioritized not the lives of civilians, of children, and certainly not the lives of humanitarians. Investigation is not enough. We need action we need change. And we need it now," Soeripto said.

- 'We need to flood Gaza with food'

She called on the Council to pass a permanent cease-fire resolution, and said: "Member States must stop fueling this crisis with weapons they're selling to the parties of the conflict."

Welcoming Israeli temporary reopening of the Erez crossing point, Soeripto said: "We need to flood Gaza with food, water and aid to prevent further tragedy. We need unfettered humanitarian access in all of Gaza. More aid must be allowed to come in."

Flouting the International Court of Justice provisional ruling, Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip where at least 33,091 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 75,750 injured since Oct. 7, 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.