Red Line Cymru: Every day a full classroom of children are killed

Sarah Rees, head of Oxfam Cymru

On average, every single day in Gaza since the start of the current conflict, the equivalent of a classroom of children is killed by the bombs, bullets and blockades.

This is the stark reality of the war in Gaza. As Israeli forces advance into Gaza City, pushing over a million people into shrinking so-called “safe zones,” the killing continues.

And it is not only bombs and bullets. Some children are dying simply because they are starving — food and aid have been turned into weapons of war.

Nowhere is safe, the recent attack on a hospital in Gaza City, as well as in designated ‘safe zones’, making it clear that civilians, journalists, children, and emergency responders are all being targeted indiscriminately by the Israeli armed forces

Bombs, Bullets and Hunger

As we reflect on our summer, the memories made with the children we hold dear, it is hard to imagine the reality for children in Gaza. Whilst our children play and run around in the sunshine, children in Gaza run from bombs and drones.

Whilst in Wales, parents and carers are preparing children for a return to school, the children themselves are filled with the excitement of being a year older, a new classroom, perhaps new teachers, it is hard to understand that the children of Gaza have no hope of a return to education.

Their schools have been destroyed. Their days are filled not with lessons but with fear, hunger and grief.

For the children of Gaza, the reality is one that should never have been allowed to happen – a man-made famine, where all children can think about is their gnawing hunger, as they hope for the basics, food and water to fight starvation.

Their futures – if they survive – are marked by displacement, malnutrition, unsafe water, collapsing healthcare, and relentless violence.

Voices Matter

We must continue to raise our voices in Wales and demand action. Every single voice matters. Collectively we become harder to ignore.

The Welsh Government and the UK Government must apply maximum pressure on the Israeli Government to end this conflict and to allow unrestricted access for humanitarian aid into Gaza. We must keep pressing until they step up and fulfil their responsibility.

At Oxfam Cymru we are doing this through the Red Line Cymru campaign. Visibly with Red Lines and Red Line posters in our windows. In our Oxfam shops people can pick up postcards to write direct messages to their MPs and Senedd Members – and we will make sure these messages are delivered so voices are heard. Online, supporters can add their names to our petition. We are sharing the reality of Gaza as widely as we can – through articles like this one, and through the words of colleagues such as Bushra Khalidi, who lives and works in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Stop the Genocide

A genocide is being committed in Gaza – in plain sight, do not look away.

The world has a responsibility to name it, to recognise this genocide, to resist its escalation, to demand that the current Israeli Government step back from their current course of action and end it.

The people of Gaza, have a right to humanitarian aid, to healthcare, access to clean water, to education, to life itself. We must defend these rights in every way we can.

Survival, Ceasefire and Hostage Release

Oxfam is very clear that all Israeli hostages must also be released. There is no justification for holding civilians hostage, just as there is no justification for bombing and starving innocent civilians in Gaza.

International law must apply equally – to Hamas and to the Israeli Government. We condemn the horrific attacks of 7 October, including the killing of civilians and the taking of hostages. These were crimes against humanity. But crimes cannot be answered with more crimes. Multiple wrongs do not make a right.

Our crisis responses at Oxfam and Oxfam Cymru are always driven by humanitarian need alone. The reality of life in Gaza is that people are facing the destruction of vital services, including provision of clean, drinkable, water, and basic sanitation, with all of Gaza at imminent risk of famine. At least 63,000 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli military during this conflict, including thousands of children.

Ceasefire?

Now, with reports of new ceasefire talks, there is an urgent opportunity. This time, a deal must be secured – for hostages to be released, for the killing to stop, and for aid to flow in at the scale needed. But the world must not look away afterwards. Rebuilding Gaza will take years, and humanitarian aid must not again be weaponised or blocked.

Israel must not reinstate blockades, and aid must be allowed to flow freely and in vast quantities into this war ravaged and desolate landscape, where an estimated 80% of all buildings and infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed.

We must hold the Red Line until the people of Gaza can be confident of their ability and their right to live their lives in peace and prosperity.

Join the Red Line

Oxfam Cymru’s Red Line Cymru campaign draws a clear and urgent line:

• A permanent ceasefire to allow unrestricted aid delivery through all land crossings into Gaza
• An end to militarised and privatised aid models that humiliate and harm civilians
• A return to UN-led, principled humanitarian aid channels delivering sustained predictable aid flows
• The protection of humanitarian workers and infrastructure
• The upholding of international law and the dignity of Palestinian life

Adequate humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow into Gaza now – freely, safely, and with dignity.

History will ask what we did when Gaza starved. Let the answer be: we drew the line.

Join Oxfam Cymru’s Red Line Cymru campaign today. Add your voice. Act now. Help us demand a future where aid is not a weapon, but a lifeline.