GAZA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Palestinian children demonstrated on Tuesday in the northern Gaza Strip, demanding an end to the 11-year Israeli blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory.
The demonstration, called by the National Commission for the Great March of Return, was held near the Israel-controlled Beit Hanoun checkpoint.
Gaza has been placed under a tight Israeli blockade since Islamic Hamas movement seized the territory by force in 2007 after routing forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.
The blockade has pushed Gaza's two million people deeper into poverty with growing unemployment rates.
Demonstrators, including bed-ridden sick children, raised Palestinian flags and pictures of their peers who were shot dead by the Israeli army during the previous protests.
The children also raised banners denouncing Israeli crimes, and released balloons bearing messages to the world in several languages demanding an end to the Israeli blockade.
"We are here to demand the lift of the siege and the right of treatment as well as a decent life for people in Gaza," Ibrahim al-Masri, a child lying on his sickbed, told Xinhua.
"The children participation is a continuation of the March of Return to demand the international community to assume its responsibilities and lift the unjust siege imposed on Gaza," said Raed Ghabayin, one of the organizers of the protest.
The children came here to send a message to the international community to demand a decent life and the simplest basic rights such as food, medicine, clean water and free movement, he added.
At least 146 Palestinians, including 20 children, have been killed by Israeli fire since March 30, the first day of the ongoing Palestinian "Great March of Return" rally against Israel's 11-year crippling blockade and the U.S. embassy move to the disputed holy city of Jerusalem.
