Protestors from across southern Maine rallied in Portland Saturday to call attention to the plight of children caught in the Gaza conflict.
About 75 people, including more than two dozen children, took to Monument Square to call for a permanent ceasefire.
Fourth Grader Solomon Landis of Portland said the violence must stop.
"Thousands of men, women and children even my age are dead, injured, starving or don't have any family left. Stop the bombing. Free Palestine and free the world."
Second Grader Eidie Breau-Masood of Lewiston was also among the speakers.
"I'm here today because I feel the children in Gaza deserve more. In the fall me and my mom were hiding because there was a shooter in our town and we thought the shooter broke into our house. I remember what that feeling was like and think how much the children in Gaza are scared. It must be that times a hundred," Breau-Masood said.
The United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Office estimates that more than 14,000 children have been killed since the war started on October 7.
International aid organizations say more than a million of Gaza's children are no longer able to go to school because nearly ninety percent of schools and universities there are damaged or destroyed.
The Youth Rally for Gaza's Children was organized by the Coalition for Palestine and Veterans for Peace.