More than 1.8 million human beings have been under a suffocating, deadly siege imposed by Israel and accommodated by the Egyptian government, that severely restricts all movement of people and products.

It is creating in Gaza what has been described as the biggest open air prison in the world, subject to frequent Israeli attacks and used as a laboratory to test and market new Israeli weapons.

The average age in Gaza is 17 years, with half the people under the age of 16. This is a defenceless civilian population, densely packed into this besieged enclave with no place to run or take refuge from Israel’s full-on military onslaught.