Julie Webb-Pullman: Trying to Save Lives in Gaza

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Children in support of Hana Shalabi

Two days after Addameer Human Rights organisation and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel stated that Palestinian political prisoner Hana Shalabi was “in immediate mortal danger and should be immediately transferred to a hospital for close observation” she remains in a prison clinic, closer to death by the minute.

On the 35th day of her hunger strike, and in the face of the refusal of the Israeli military judge to give a definite date for the hearing of her urgent appeal, women and children from Rafah made the journey to Gaza City to manifest their support outside the International Red Cross.

The sit-in was addressed by a spokesperson for the Gaza Ministry of Planning and Foreign Affairs, Jamal Abureda, who said that Hana Shalabi’s determination was a lesson to the occupation, and the support for her cause amongst Palestinians shows how all of Palestine and the diaspora is united against Israel on the issue of administrative detention, and the occupation.

While the children of Rafah were taking to the streets for Hana Shalabi, Gazan children from Beit Hanoun to Rafah were taking to the streets a little further down the road, for a different reason.

Palestinian Youth Association For Leadership and Rights Activation (PYALARA) and Save the Children Fund UK were celebrating the end of a project on road safety in Gaza. Children from the length and breadth of the Gaza Strip, many of whom are deaf, took over the streets to march to Al Jundy in the town centre, accompanied by a school pipe band.

All in all, it was day dedicated to trying to save lives – those of Hana Shalabi and the other hunger-striking prisoners, and those of the children of Gaza.

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