Following a night of violence in Gaza and Israel, Save the Children is calling for an immediate end to the hostilities on both sides, to prevent any further suffering of children and their families. Our Senior Programme Officer and spokesperson, Maher Abdullah, has shared his family’s experience overnight in Gaza.
“They were asking ‘are we going to die?’ Why do they want to kill us?’ ‘What did we do for them to kill us?’ Unfortunately, we don’t have an answer for the children. What we try to do is just to keep them calm and try to tell them that this is just thunder and such things. But children, they know this is not thunder because they can feel the house shaking. They could feel the neighbours screaming, they could hear them, they could also see some huge lights due to the bombing and the firing in the surrounding areas. What we are asking here is just to find a peaceful way to end all of this, to ensure that no more harm will happen to all affected children by these escalations in Gaza.”
Please find a full audio and transcript in English, and a short video of an airstrike filmed by a Save the Children staff member last night here.
We have spokespeople available in Gaza. To arrange an interview, please contact:
Saman Saidi (currently deployed to Gaza)
saman.saidi@rb.se
WhatsApp: +46721579121
Local number: +972 595 94 12 13
Davina Hagan (Global Media Unit in London)
davina.hagan@savethechildren.org
Phone/WhatsApp: +44 7732 601762
During out of office hours, please contact the 24-hour press office in London:
media@savethechildren.org.uk
+44 7831 650 409