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Injured Palestinians, including children are brought to al-Ahli Baptist Hospital for medical treatment aftermath of Israeli attack on Gaza City, Gaza on July 16, 2025. [Dawoud Abo Alkas – Anadolu Agency]
During a session at the UN Security Council on Wednesday, the Executive Director of UNICEF, Catherine Russell, revealed alarming figures about the impact of the ongoing Israeli offensive on Gaza.
She confirmed that more than 17,000 children have been killed since the beginning of the war, at an average rate of 28 children each day– the equivalent of an entire classroom.” It is as if we are losing an entire classroom of pupils every single day for two years.”
“Children are not political actors. They do not start conflicts, and they are powerless to stop them. But they suffer greatly, and they wonder why the world has failed them,” she added.
Meanwhile, the UN Under-Secretary-General Mr Tom Fletcher warned that the health situation in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels.
“Only 17 of 36 hospitals and 63 of 170 primary healthcare centres are functioning, all only partially, even as mass casualties arrive daily,” he highlighted.
Fletcher indicated that half of all medical equipment has been damaged, with the ongoing fuel crisis remaining critical, despite its vital role in powering ambulances and other essential services.
Expressing concern over the alarming rates of child starvation in June, he revealed that “more than 5,800 girls and boys have been diagnosed as acutely malnourished.”
“Last week, amid this hunger crisis, children and women were killed in a strike while waiting for the food supplements to keep them alive,” he warned.
Weeks after Israeli forces abducted the Madleen’s crew in international waters, the Freedom Flotilla is ready to launch its next mission, the Handala.
Only weeks after the crew of the boat Madleen was intercepted and abducted in international waters by Israeli occupation forces, the Freedom Flotilla coalition is preparing to set sail again. The Handala, carrying essential supplies including food and medicines, will begin its voyage from Italy on July 13, with 18 crew members on board, including trade unionists and parliamentarians such as US labor organizer Christian Smalls, French MEP Emma Fourreau, and MP Gabrielle Cathala.
Breaking the siege for Gaza’s children
Michele Borgia, spokesperson for Freedom Flotilla Italy, told Peoples Dispatch that beyond the Flotilla’s consistent message of solidarity with the Palestinian people under siege, this mission has an additional focus: the children of Gaza. Thousands of Palestinian children, including babies, have been killed in Israel’s ongoing attacks, Borgia warned. The ship’s cargo includes baby formula. The name of the ship, Handala, is a reference to the cartoon character who turns his back on the world in protest until Palestine is free.
Since Israel broke the ceasefire in March and imposed a blockade on all humanitarian aid to Gaza, children have starved as formula and food remain out of reach, Borgia continues. “There are also many reports of children and parents being targeted while waiting in line for aid, specifically baby formula.”
When announcing the mission, Freedom Flotilla wrote: “The children of Gaza – who make up over half the population – have been living under a brutal blockade and siege for their entire lives. Since October 2023, over 50,000 have been killed or injured, tens of thousands orphaned, and nearly a million forcibly displaced and homeless. All now face famine, disease, and trauma few of us can imagine. This mission is for them.”
The specific link to Gaza’s children has also prompted a call to action for southern Italy. Puglia was the first in the country to officially support severing ties with Israel, Borgia points out. Now, children from Puglia have been invited to send drawings to children in Gaza. These will be carried aboard the Handala as an additional message of solidarity.
Handala’s political message
Borgia says that the supplies on board the Flotilla’s ships are far from enough to meet the needs of the people in Gaza after months of blockade. “Critics, including Israel, never miss the chance to point out that we’re carrying so little, asking what good it can do,” he said. “But they fail to mention that, for example, last year, when we organized the delivery of thousands of tons of essential supplies, those shipments were blocked too.”
The mission of the Handala, like that of the Madleen and earlier voyages, goes beyond delivering material aid, he adds – it is, in many ways, a political statement. “For years, Israel has undermined Palestinians’ ability to fish or farm,” Borgia said. “This has forced Palestinians in Gaza into complete dependency on aid, with devastating consequences for their sense of dignity and self-sufficiency.”
In this context, as governments remain silent in the face of Israel’s genocide, ongoing occupation and other crimes, Freedom Flotilla aims to break the silence. “Where governments fail, we, the people, are there to act,” Borgia emphasized.
Freedom Flotilla Italy has taken an important role in organizing the Handala’s departure, coordinating aspects of technical and logistical preparations. The chapter draws links to Palestine solidarity mobilizations in the early 2000s, including the work of journalist and activist Vittorio Arrigoni, who joined a mission that successfully reached Gaza. “Ever since then, Israel has cracked down on similar missions,” Borgia noted, referencing the violent obstruction of recent sailings, including the Madleen.
Many of the Freedom Flotilla’s crew members are still from Europe and North America. “Israel tends to hesitate a bit more before attacking international activists,” Borgia said. But as the world witnessed with the Madleen, even that doesn’t stop them from kidnapping crews from international waters and subjecting them to abuse. Meanwhile, governments from which the activists originate largely remain silent, including Italy, Borgia says. “Our ministers shake hands with ICC suspect Benjamin Netanyahu, but they say nothing about Palestine.”
Trade unionists on board
He also pointed out that Italian companies like defense giant Leonardo continue arms exports to Israel, despite constitutional prohibitions to do so. Others taking part in the mission have echoed similar critiques. US union leader Christian Smalls announced his participation in the Handala mission together with an appeal for an end to US support for Israel. “It’s not just the government,” he wrote. “Our own US labor union organizations that are supposed to fight for justice are complicit.”
In his statement, Smalls denounced the silence of some major US unions on the genocide in Gaza and urged them to listen to their members. “The killing of innocent people does not go beyond the scope of labor,” Smalls said on social media. “I am calling on US labor to take a stand: shut down all arms shipments to Israel, pass ceasefire resolutions immediately, and get on the right side of history. We will not be intimidated. We will not be silent.”
Across Europe, trade unions are increasingly endorsing pro-Palestinian resolutions under pressure from their rank and file. In many ways, this mirrors the experience of the Freedom Flotilla that Borgia describes: strong grassroots support and growing engagement from communities, met with indifference or hostility from the political class. “But that hasn’t stopped us,” he said. “Many of our core organizers are Palestinian, and when we talk to people in Palestine, they always urge us to keep speaking out.”
As the Handala prepares to set sail, its crew is determined to keep the focus on Gaza. And more ships are being prepared to do the same
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.Vote Labour for Genocide.
Children’s commissioner says any Labour strategy to tackle deprivation must scrap the two-child benefit cap
Children in England are living in “almost Dickensian levels of poverty” where deprivation has become normalised, the children’s commissioner has said, as she insisted the two-child benefit limit must be scrapped.
Young people said they had experienced not having enough water to shower, rats biting through their walls, and mouldy bedrooms, among a number of examples in a report on the “crisis of hardship” gripping the country.
Dame Rachel de Souza said she had noticed a significant shift in how young people talked about their lives since she became children’s commissioner four years ago, and that “issues that were traditionally seen as ‘adult’ concerns are now keenly felt by children”.
“Children shared harrowing accounts of hardship, with some in almost Dickensian levels of poverty,” she said. “They don’t talk about ‘poverty’ as an abstract concept but about not having the things that most people would consider basic: a safe home that isn’t mouldy or full or rats, with a bed big enough to stretch out in, ‘luxury’ food like bacon, a place to do homework, heating, privacy in the bathroom and being able to wash, having their friends over, and not having to travel hours to school.”
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She said that, in “one of the richest societies in the world”, people in power “should be ashamed that children are growing up knowing their futures are being determined by their financial circumstances”.
Vote Labour for Genocide.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide.
![Injured Palestinians, including children are brought to al-Ahli Baptist Hospital for medical treatment aftermath of Israeli attack on Gaza City, Gaza on July 16, 2025. [Dawoud Abo Alkas - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/AA-20250716-38579326-38579324-ISRAELI_ATTACK_ON_GAZA_LEAVES_MULTIPLE_CASUALTIES-1-1.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
