Calls for an urgent and comprehensive ceasefire are growing louder as Israel’s military operation in Gaza comes to a temporary end. Nobel laureate and advocate for women’s education Malala Yousafzai is one of many who has expressed relief over the interim ceasefire.
While acknowledging the break, the benefactor highlighted the difficulties ahead in a message posted on X (previously Twitter). Malala expressed her relief for the women, children, and young people who were reunited with their families tonight as well as for the halt to the bombardment of Gaza.
Tonight, I feel relief for the women, children and young people reunited with their families, and for the pause in the bombardment of Gaza.
But tomorrow, children in Gaza will wake up still grieving loved ones, desperate for food and water and fearing that their homes, streets… https://t.co/0TpikhAzBz
— Malala Yousafzai (@Malala) November 24, 2023
Expressing her conflicted emotions on the little respite from Gaza’s destruction, she demanded that it end before the crimes against Palestinians recommence in full. “However, Gaza’s children will wake up tomorrow still grieving for loved ones, in need of food and water, and afraid that the violence against their homes, streets, and schools will soon resume.”
Malala declared, “We must keep speaking out for them—for a full ceasefire and more humanitarian aid.” She was making a clear call for a halt. The unnecessary suffering has to stop. In a quotation response to her article from October 20, in which she asked readers to join a petition denouncing Israel’s military attacks on children, the activist expressed her opinion.
“Join me in adding your name to this petition demanding that leaders reach a deal to release all children being unjustly held hostage or imprisoned and that Israel halt its assault on schools and places where children are seeking shelter,” the post said.
Join me in adding your name to this petition demanding that Israel halt its assault on schools and places where children are seeking shelter, and that leaders reach a deal to release all children being unjustly held hostage or imprisoned. https://t.co/JBAFfo9Y4F
— Malala Yousafzai (@Malala) October 19, 2023
Malala emphasised the need for international law to safeguard children in crisis areas in a previous X post this month. She condemned the Israeli troops’ airstrikes of hospitals and schools, which since October 7 have tragically claimed thousands of children’s lives. “Schools and children should never be targets,” the speaker declared. This is international law; it is not a question of opinion.
Children and schools should never be targets. This isn’t a matter of opinion — it’s international law.
I continue my call for a ceasefire. The Israeli government must end these indiscriminate attacks that have cost thousands of innocent Palestinian children and families their… https://t.co/1DuJBKGX4X
— Malala Yousafzai (@Malala) November 3, 2023
She reiterated her request for a ceasefire and urged the Israeli government to stop these indiscriminate assaults, highlighting the violation of international law and the serious harm they are causing to many innocent Palestinian children and families.