Colin McGrath MLA says the long term impacts of the Gaza humanitarian crisis will be dire
SDLP South Down MLA Colin McGrath has said that the long-term impacts of the ongoing war in Gaza will be “dire” adding that it is “a humanitarian crisis that should concern all of us”.
Commenting, he said: “While the current conflict has been ongoing for just over 100 days in Gaza, the Israeli occupation of the region has lasted more than 60 years, and the blockade in Gaza is nearing 20 years.
“It can be easy to look at an issue such as this from the warmth and comfort of our homes and think of it as something separate to us, but in reality, what is happening in Gaza is a humanitarian crisis that should concern all of us.
“The current state of affairs in the last 100 days is that there are almost 25,000 people dead and approximately 70% of those are women and children.
“We are told that there are in excess of 10,000 children now dead and another 8,000 missing.
“On top of this, some 2,000,000 people are understood to have been displaced from their homes.
“This news is shocking and should shock us into action.
“The long-term impacts of this crisis are not yet known, but the longer this conflict continues the more dire its consequences will be.
“We have seen first hand in our land the trans-generational trauma that conflict brings.
“The early part of the 21st century should have taught us how regions can become destabilised and how oppressors can actually radicalise people into taking up arms.
“The lessons of history are there for all to see. If we do not learn from them, we will undoubtedly repeat them and on a more frightening scale.
“We need to see a humanitarian response to this crisis and an end to the genocide.
“It wouldn’t be accepted here, so why should it be accepted there in Gaza?”
