Thousands of Palestinians protested in the occupied West Bank’s major cities yesterday against the war in Gaza and in support of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
One of the largest marches took place in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority located just north of Jerusalem, with hundreds gathering at the main square, waving Palestinian flags, Al Arabiya News reported.
Many protesters carried photos of Palestinians killed or imprisoned by Israel, as well as photos depicting the hunger crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where UN-backed experts have warned that a ‘famine is unfolding’.
“My son is in (Israel’s) Megido prison and he suffers from many things, such as the lack of medicine the lack of food,” Rula Ghanem, a Palestinian academic and writer who took part in the march, said.
She said that her son had lost 10kg and suffered from scabies in jail.
The number of Palestinians jailed by Israel skyrocketed after the start of the war in Gaza, some for violent acts, but some also for posting political statements on social media, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs says.
The commission’s spokesman Thaer Shriteh said: “The international community is a partner in all this suffering, as long as it does not intervene quickly to save the Palestinian people and save the prisoners inside the prisons and detention centre.”
A group of protesters dressed as skeletons and carried dolls around to symbolise the Gaza war’s dire effect on children, who are most at risk of malnutrition.
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