Children are not for war – mural display on the ordeal of children and women in Gaza

COLOMBO – A mural display and recital of l songs  took place at the compound of the Palestine embassy in Colombo on Thursday, Jan.18.

In addition to the mural display, various performances were conducted  by Samathai Feminists Collective and Third Eye Friends to stress  “Children are not for war”.

The Palestine ambassador Dr Zuhair M H Zaid was also present with the participants.who displayed the sentiments on the brutal killing of children by Israeli aggression.

Sima Sami Bahous, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), recalled that women and girls pay the highest price when armed conflict erupts.  Since 7 October, when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, 67 per cent of the more than 14,000 people killed in Gaza are estimated to be women and children.  “That is two mothers killed every hour and seven women every two hours,” she said.  “We mourn them all.”

Every day, 180 women are giving birth without water, painkillers, anaesthesia for Caesarean sections, electricity for incubators or medical supplies, she said.  Mothers, meanwhile, mix baby formula with contaminated water — when they find it — and go without food so that their children can live another day.  “Women in Gaza have told us that they pray for peace, but that if peace does not come, they pray for a quick death, in their sleep, with their children in their arms,” she said.  “It should shame us all that any mother, anywhere, has such a prayer.”