What: Christian Aid delivers letters on behalf of Gaza children asking for immediate and permanent ceasefire
Where: 10 Downing Street, London SW1
Dear Prime Minister,
On behalf of our partner, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Christian Aid is presenting you with two letters written by Palestinian children in Gaza with an urgent plea to secure an immediate and permanent ceasefire. In their heartbreaking letters Mais and Hala describe the horrors they face. Please read them.
Christian Aid’s local partners, including PCHR, have responded heroically to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and continue to do so. In the most unthinkable circumstances, under bombardment, having been displaced multiple times, their offices destroyed, and friends and family killed, our partners have provided lifesaving shelter, food and medical support to the communities they serve. The children who sit on the Palestinian Children’s Council in Gaza, convened by PCHR, have tried to meet as the situation allows, to demand their rights and do what they can to improve the situation for children.
Our partners are deeply rooted in their communities and have therefore been the first responders to this crisis. Our locally-led approach has meant that people have been supported to help themselves, in the absence of a ceasefire and sufficient aid. However, this must be complemented with an immediate ceasefire to allow a surge in humanitarian aid in Gaza and unfettered access.
Christian Aid is proud to stand with our partners and fully supports their demand for urgent intervention to end this tragedy.
Your sincerely,
Katie Roxburgh
Programme Manager – Israel and occupied Palestinian territory
Christian Aid
Letter from Mais Abdel Hadi, President of the Palestinian Children's Council:
Dear Prime Minister,
In my capacity as the President of the Palestinian Children’s Council and on behalf of all the children in Gaza, I address you, esteemed Prime Minister.
We write to you with hearts full of sorrow and spirits crushed by the daily suffering inflicted upon us by the brutal war.
We live in a constant state of fear and anxiety, with shells accompanying us around the clock, reaping lives, sparing only those fortunate enough to survive. Destruction and devastation surround us on all sides. Our question is: why must we children pay such a horrendous price?
The child protection laws that your country helped establish have not been applied to us. They have not considered our childhood, despite claiming to be its protectors, alongside many other countries.
We wake up every day to the sound of bombs and rockets, with no safe place to seek refuge. This violent war has taken our homes, schools, families, relatives, friends and classmates. It has forced us to sleep in poor tents and in the open air, our bodies scorched by the sun during the day and deprived of sleep at night due to constant airstrikes and random shelling.
We need your support and urgent intervention to end this tragedy.
We demand an immediate ceasefire and the establishment of peace because we, the children of Palestine, deserve to live in safety and peace. We also urge you to work on rebuilding our schools and hospitals that have been destroyed and to provide the necessary psychological and educational support so we can regain our lives and futures.
Stop the death by starvation, the killing by denying medicine, and the destruction of health centres. Bring back life through songs, poems and music. We are children who hope for a dignified life and do not wish for anyone to suffer.
Save our lives, dreams and rights, and preserve our childhood. We are not just numbers or news in media reports; we are living souls, carrying hope in our hearts, awaiting your swift and effective action.
Thank you for listening to our suppressed cries and for your efforts to bring justice and peace to Gaza.
Mais Abdel Hadi, Palestinian Children’s Council President
Letter from Hala Abu Saleem, a child from Gaza:
Dear Prime Minister,
Despite the pain, I send you my greetings and regards. I am Hala Abu Saleem, a child from Gaza.
Dear Prime Minister, will my hand grow back? Or am I condemned to live without an arm?
I am not a terrorist to be exterminated. I am not a terrorist for my house to be destroyed and my family killed. I am not a terrorist to live in a tent that is scorching during the day and freezing at night, unfit even for animals!
I should now be preparing for my final and most important year of school. But instead, I help my mother light the fire to cook what little food we have, food that doesn't even fill us. My tears should be falling from fear of exams or the difficulty of the curriculum. My tears did fall, Prime Minister, but from the fire’s smoke, that almost blinded me.
Prime Minister, may I ask how you started your new year in 2024?
Yes, of course, you started it with celebrations, watching a wonderful movie with your family, and a cake adorned with glowing candles.
Like you Prime Minister, I also started it with glowing candles. But my candles are a bit larger than yours. These candles destroyed and burned our neighbour’s house, terrified us, and killed more than 16 people, including six children, Prime Minister. These candles displaced us from our homes, burned our dreams, and scattered us!
It's time for you to bear the consequences of your mistakes from over a century ago.
End the occupation. Stop the genocide!
Hala Abu Saleem
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Photos of event and letter authors available on request
