news‘Oh starving children of Gaza’- A poem that invades and batters the hearts of all but the soul-dead
A statue of the Madonna with a child at Ripon Cathedral in Yorkshire. Three Mother and Child sculptures in copper by the York artist Harold Gosney attract a great response from visitors, especially those with eyes wide- open to what is happening in Gaza right now. There, tens of thousands of women dressed and resembling the Madonna in this statue, are trying to feed starving children or – even worse – burying their infant loved ones. (Picture : Trevor Grundy)
United Nations officials and aid workers believe that well over 13,000 children have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
A report in The Guardian on April 16. 2024 said: “The death toll has risen to more than 33,700, the majority women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled ministry of health. Israel launched the war after Hamas killed about 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, in a cross-border attack on 7 October (2023).”
A report in The Observer on April 21, 2024 said that world attention has moved from the worsening situation in Gaza, to the latest conflict between Israel and Iran.
The death toll in Gaza has reached 34,000. Most of the dead are women and children. About 77,000 people are seriously injured.
OH RASCAL CHILDREN OF GAZA by Khaled Juma
Oh rascal children of Gaza,
You who constantly disturbed me with
your screams under my window,
You who filled every morning with rush
and chaos,
You who broke my vase and stole
the lonely flower on my balcony,
Come back –
And scream as you want,
And break all the vases,
Steal all the flowers,
Come back,
Just come back . . .