DERRY JOURNAL Editorial: Gaza famine shames the world with humanitarian aid blocked

By Kevin Mullan
Published 7th May 2024, 11:14 BST
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Derry’s May Day rally heard calls for solidarity with Palestinian workers under siege in the Gaza strip at the weekend.

The thousands of workers and trade union members killed in the carpet bombing of that narrow sliver of land these past seven months were called to mind.

As Catherine Hutton, chair of the Derry Branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, attested: “‘May Day, May Day, May Day’ is an internationally-recognised distress call, a call to signify that something is going catastrophically wrong.

"Palestine is sending out a distress call to the world.”

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Displaced Palestinians who left Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip following an evacuation order by the Israeli army, arrive at Khan Yunis with their belongings on May 6, 2024. On the same day, Hamas announced it had accepted a truce proposal. (Photo by Khames Alrefi / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by KHAMES ALREFI/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)Displaced Palestinians who left Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip following an evacuation order by the Israeli army, arrive at Khan Yunis with their belongings on May 6, 2024. On the same day, Hamas announced it had accepted a truce proposal. (Photo by Khames Alrefi / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by KHAMES ALREFI/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Displaced Palestinians who left Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip following an evacuation order by the Israeli army, arrive at Khan Yunis with their belongings on May 6, 2024. On the same day, Hamas announced it had accepted a truce proposal. (Photo by Khames Alrefi / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by KHAMES ALREFI/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Over 34,000 have been killed since the war began but there is now real evidence famine is taking deadly grip in Gaza.

Cindy McCain, Director of the World Food Programme, said on Friday: “There is famine - full-blown famine in the north, and it’s moving its way south.”

Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner-General spoke of a denial of humanitarian access and attacks on humanitarian workers and convoys.

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Trade unionists use Derry May Day rally to place focus on war in Gaza

“Only in the past two weeks, we have recorded 10 incidents involving shooting at convoys, arrests of UN staff including bullying, stripping them naked, threats with arms and long delays at checkpoints forcing convoys to move during the dark or abort,” he declared on Sunday.

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Humanitarian aid blocked as children and the elderly starve. Is this a famine or a starvation? As Ms. Hutton told Derry’s May Day Rally on Saturday: “It dehumanises us all.”

Emergency rally at Free Derry Corner to protest against invasion of Rafah