#79 ”We Refuse to be Forgotten” | Gaza Youth Speak Out amid 17 years of Siege

This summer marks 17 years of Israel’s hermetic siege and blockade of Gaza, the longest siege of the 21st century.

Israel has been placing Palestinians under a suffocating blockade, which constitutes an unprecedented form of collective punishment in a stark violation of international humanitarian law, say Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

The 2.2 million Palestinians living in Gaza today have endured rounds of Israel’s lethal aerial assaults delivered with world-leading industrialised military technology on an imprisoned population, leaving 80% of Gaza’s one million children living with depression, grief and fear according to Save the Children.

In 2012, the United Nations projected Gaza would be unliveable by 2020. Today in 2023, Palestinians continue to endure a crisis manufactured by Israel’s blockade, with spiralling unemployment, where 98% of water is undrinkable, where electricity blackouts continue daily and where a majority of the population are forced to rely on international organisations and aid for humanitarian relief.

By any rational judgement, Gaza today is indeed unliveable and yet Palestinians must endure it.

We hear from young Palestinians living in Gaza today who demand for their humanity to be recognised by the international community. For this show, we collaborate with We Are Not Numbers (WANN), a youth-led Palestinian nonprofit project in the Gaza Strip.

It tells the stories behind the numbers of Palestinians in the news and advocates for their human rights. 

Hamza M. Salha

Fatima Elzahraa Shaat

Roaa Aladdin Missmeh