Peace campaigners will again meet on the Kirk Green, Broad Street, Kirkwall, on Saturday 26 July, from 1 to 2pm. The campaigners are protesting the Gaza Genocide and the engineered starvation of the civilian population by Israel.

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, said that Gaza was “a constructed and deliberate mass starvation”.

He added: “Israel controls all aspects of humanitarian access, whether outside or within Gaza.”

“UNRWA alone has the equivalent of 6,000  trucks of food and medical assistance stuck in Egypt and Jordan”. 

And he continued “If we fail the Palestinians in Gaza, others are likely to be failed too in the future. Let’s not set a dangerous and irreversible precedent”.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization also spoke about the famine in Gaza, where over 100 people have died from starvation. WHO has reported 21 cases of children being starved to death.

1000 people have been killed trying to access food. Most of the killings took place at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, an American-run and Israeli-backed aid distribution organization which the UN has repeatedly said violates well-established principles of international humanitarian law.

On Monday a UAE aid ship carrying 7,166 tonnes of supplies left Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi on Monday to deliver crucial supplies for Gaza. The vessel is heading for the port of Al Arish in Egypt with  4,372 tonnes of food, 1,433 tonnes of shelter materials, 860 tonnes of medical supplies and 501 tonnes of health supplies. It will take two weeks before it arrives.

Meanwhile the people of Gaza starve.

The organisers of the Orkney Vigil invite anyone who shares in their calls for an immediate ceasefire, the unhindered delivery of aid, and the release of all hostages, to join with them on the Kirk Green.

Here’s a film from last Saturday’s vigil.

Fiona Grahame