A Palestinian holds sealed bottles with letters before tossing them into the sea, at Gaza's fishing harbor in Gaza City, April 22, 2019. Dozens of Palestinian youths in Gaza City have sent letters to countries around the world, demanding solution to their problems and the lift of Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip. These letters were written on Monday during an event held at Gaza's fishing harbor, before being sealed in small bottles and tossed into the sea. (Xinhua/Yasser Qudih)
GAZA, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Palestinian youths in Gaza City have sent letters to countries around the world, demanding solution to their problems and the lift of Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip.
These letters were written on Monday during an event held at Gaza's fishing harbor, before being sealed in small bottles and tossed into the sea.
The campaign aims at communicating the problems of young people in Gaza to the countries of the free world to find real and radical solutions.
The Gaza Strip has been under strict Israeli blockade since Hamas seized the territory by routing security forces of the Palestinian Authority in 2007.
Israel's restrictions on Gaza and the movement of its 2 million population make it difficult for patients there to seek treatment abroad.
The event was organized by the International Organization for the Support of the Rights of the Palestinian People in partnership with the youth groups in Gaza.
"We want to send a message of freedom to the world to highlight the problems of the young people in the Gaza Strip. These problems negatively affected the lives of the young people here," Omar Nada, the event's organizer, told Xinhua.
"Young people in the Gaza Strip suffer from extreme poverty, unemployment ... lack of health and education services as well as the inability to travel freely," Nada said.
He called for realistic solutions to their problems, urging the United Nations to implement its decisions in favor of the Palestinian people in order to end the Israeli occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state.
Omar Abu Qomsan, a 26-year-old participant of the event, said many young people in Gaza have been deprived of their right to overseas education and medical treatment.
"Around 61,000 injured young people want to travel for treatment, but no one is helping them," he lamented.
"The message of young people in Gaza is clear: we want to live freely and with dignity on our homeland, like the rest of the Arab and international youths," the Palestinian young man told Xinhua.
The 12-year Israeli blockade and repeated conflicts between Israel and Palestinian factions have pushed the 2 million population in Gaza to a severe humanitarian deterioration in all aspects of life.
A February report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics showed that the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip climbed to 52 percent in 2018 from 44 percent in 2017.
According to Palestinian figures, the per-day income in Gaza is only two U.S. dollars, with 85 percent of the population living under the poverty line.
