Campaigners in Orkney will meet in Vigil for Gaza on Saturday 5 July between 1 and 2pm on the Kirk Green, Broad Street, Kirkwall, as they have done since October 2023.

This week Channel 4 aired the documentary, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, after the BBC , who had helped to fund the film, refused to do so.

A forensic investigation into Israeli military attacks on hospitals in Gaza. The film also examines allegations of the targeting and abuse of doctors and healthcare workers in Gaza.

On 3 July UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric issued a statement after people in their thousands were again forced to move on by Israeli forces. Multiple attacks on civilians accessing aid continue to take place with many killed – targeted and shot.

The statement said:

In just one day this week, orders to relocate forced nearly 30,000 people to flee, yet again, with no safe place to go and clearly inadequate supplies of shelter, food, medicine or water.
 
International humanitarian law is unambiguous: civilians must be respected and protected, and the needs of the population must be met.

With no fuel having entered Gaza in over 17 weeks, the UN chief is also “gravely concerned that the last lifelines for survival are being cut off.”

“Without an urgent influx of fuel, incubators will shut down, ambulances will be unable to reach the injured and sick, and water cannot be purified,” Mr. Dujarric said.

No fuel has been allowed into Gaza because of the Israeli blockade for more than four months: since 2 March 2025.  

Repeated orders by the IDF forcing people to move on now means that for the remaining survivors of the Genocide there is only 15% of Gaza left where they are permitted to remain. That’s over 2million trying to live in the midst of the rubble of their obliterated communities, with no fully functioning hospitals, lack of food, and clean water.

According OCHA, mass casualties continue to be  reported among people attempting to access food in the Gaza Strip, including as they approach or gather at militarized distribution points in Rafah and Deir al-Balah or wait for trucks carrying aid supplies. According to OCHA, as of 2 July, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported that 640 people were killed and at least 4,488 injured trying to access food supplies since 27 May 2025.

Attacks by settlers and the IDF continue in The West Bank. ” Israeli settlers attacked homes and lit a fire at the eastern entrance of the Christian West Bank village of Taybeh on June 26, as they rampaged through the neighboring village of Kafr Malik.” (as reported in Friends of the Holy Land. According to OCHA, between 7 October 2023 and 1 July 2025, 957 Palestinians – among them at least 203 children – were killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Of those, 151 Palestinians, including at least 30 children, were killed since the beginning of this year alone.

Hundreds of homes have been demolished with 4 mass demolitions taking place  since 21 January in the northern West Bank.  Incidents of settler violence and harassment occur across the West Bank.

The campaigners in Orkney extend a welcome to anyone who wishes to attend the peace vigil with them on the Kirk Green today. The islanders are calling for an immediate ceasefire, the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid, and the release of all hostages.

You can view a film of last week’s vigil here:

Images by Mike Robertson

Fiona Grahame