For weeks they have stood out in sleet, rain, wind and very occasionally sunshine, but the Orkney campaigners for a ceasefire in Gaza are resolute in their determination to continue to hold a vigil every Saturday at 1pm on the steps of St Magnus Cathedral. They will be there again today, 6th of January, until the bombardment of the people of Gaza by Israeli forces, ends.

There is nowhere safe to go for civilians. Hospitals and other vital medical infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank have been attacked nearly 600 times.

613 people have died within health facilities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October last year – 606 in Gaza and seven in the West Bank – and more than 770 have been injured, according to latest data on healthcare attacks  from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Children in the Gaza Strip face a deadly triple threat to their lives, as cases of diseases rise, nutrition plummets and the escalation in hostilities approaches its fourteenth week. Thousands of children have already died from the violence, while living conditions for children continue to rapidly deteriorate, with increasing cases of diarrhoea and rising food poverty among children, raising the risk of mounting child deaths.

The head of the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF said in a statement on Friday that children in Gaza “are caught in a nightmare that worsens with every passing day”.

Catherine Russell noted young lives are “increasingly at risk from preventable diseases and lack of food and water. All children and civilians must be protected from violence and have access to basic services and supplies.”

Cases of diarrhoea in children under five rose from 48,000 to 71,000 in just one week starting 17 December, equivalent to 3,200 new cases of diarrhoea per day.

She said the significant increase indicated child health in Gaza is “fast deteriorating”. Before the escalation in hostilities, an average of 2,000 cases of diarrhoea in children under five were recorded per month.

The UN agency providing help to Palestinians, UNRWA, said that the total number of their staff killed since the beginning of hostilities stands at 142.

1.9 million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, some multiple times.

 Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said that “Gaza has simply become uninhabitable” and he continued “The humanitarian community has been left with the impossible mission of supporting more than two million people, even as its own staff are being killed and displaced, as communication blackouts continue, as roads are damaged and convoys are shot at, and as commercial supplies vital to survival are almost non-existent.

“Infectious diseases are spreading in overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over. Some 180 Palestinian women are giving birth daily amidst this chaos.  People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded. Famine is around the corner.”

Click on this link to donate to UN Crisis Relief : Help the people of Gaza

In this film by Mike Robertson for the Orkney News Susie Shearer explains why standing at a vigil for one hour on a Saturday afternoon is so important.

Fiona Grahame