'How many more children must die?': British Palestinians plead with UK to act as Gaza's people starve

Dr Rossel Morhij recalls the night a bomb struck a school in Gaza. 

“That night is beyond anything I’ve ever seen. I will carry it with me forever, a flood of the dead and dying, dismembered people, searching through the chaos, faces, limbs, looking for their loved ones, children too stunned to cry, too shattered to speak, staring at their body parts.”

A plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Morhij most recently volunteered in Gaza in December 2024 at Nasser Hospital. She cared primarily for children, many of whom faced “multiple amputations, injuries and devastating burns no child should ever endure”.

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Morhij was speaking at an urgent press conference in London on Thursday (5 June). 

Palestinians pleaded for the UK government to take action to end the starvation and killing of people by Israeli forces in Gaza. They called for an end to arms sales to Israel, for sanctions to be enforced, and for the UK government to demand that humanitarian aid be allowed into Gaza.

Dr Sara Husseini, director of the British Palestinian Committee, said: “What brings us together is an urgent catastrophe before our eyes. After 20 months of relentless bombardment, siege and forced displacement, the people of Gaza are now facing mass starvation. The health system has all collapsed. Hospitals are out of fuel, medicine and basic supplies. 

“Doctors are operating without anaesthetic, children are dying, not just of wounds, but of hunger and dehydration, and those who are queuing for the little aid that trickles in are being lured out and shot dead. This is man-made, engineered and forced starvation.”

Ali Mousa, a British-based Palestinian who has family in Gaza, said many Palestinians are no longer “demanding freedom or dignity”, they are simply saying: “Please don’t kill me. I’m starving.”

His sister Hend Mousa joined the press conference from video call in Gaza and he spoke directly to her as he said: “We are here for you and we will never leave you, even if the whole world does. I miss you with my whole heart.”

Hend, who is a 29-year-old mother of three children, then addressed the room and said: “The whole world has witnessed us being murdered, injured, starving and nothing has changed.” 

Every morning, her three-year-old son asks for breakfast and she has to tell him there is no food. 

“My friends, I’m talking to you from my house. Within hours, we may be ordered to evacuate our home. If this happens, where shall my family go? We are starving with no home and nobody will do anything,” Hend said.

“The whole people in the UK has to do something to stop this genocide, to stop funding the zionist killing machine that’s killing our children. We are starving every day. It’s not one day. It’s 600 days. This genocide has to be stopped. Personally, I’m losing myself.”

Basem Farajallah, a member of the UK Gaza community, said: “I come here to deliver a simple and urgent message: our loved ones will not survive if this starvation continues.”

He said the British Palestinian community, many of whom have family and loved ones in Gaza, has lived in constant fear for the last two years. Not a single day has passed without fear.

Gas and electricity has been gone in Gaza for nearly a year and a half. Flour is almost impossible to find and if it is, 25kg costs nearly $500. Rice has become a luxury. People are surviving on tiny portions of beans, peas and chickpeas shared between their family.

Farajallah’s sister is diabetic. She has not seen meat in more than a year. A couple of days ago, her son went to find aid, but there was nothing. In the end, he only managed to find a small amount of flour for nearly $100. While he was gone, Farajallah’s sister was paralysed with fear and terrified he might not return.

“We say enough. We call on the UK government to take immediate action, impose a full arms embargo, enforce sanctions, demand unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza, ensure accountability for every war crime,” Farajallah said.

Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, said people walk two and a half hours to aid distribution sites in Gaza that are surrounded by fences. Thousands, even tens of thousands, of people surround it. He claimed these people are “insulted, humiliated and killed” by Israeli forces and there are no medical teams there.

Wafaa Shamallakh, a British Palestinian mother and medical interpreter involved in humanitarian advocacy and community support who has family in Gaza, described how yesterday her sister’s husband and 15-year-old son walked for more than an hour to reach an aid distribution point.

Thousands of people had done the same, desperate to find sugar or flour. But then Israeli forces started to shoot and Shamallakh’s family member was injured, shrapnel lodged into his shoulder. There were smoke bombs making it harder to see. They had to run for their lives.

Their children cried when they saw their father had returned with nothing, but Shamallakh’s sister was relieved because at least they came back alive.

“My people, the people of Gaza, are not victims of disease,” Shamallakh said. “They are human beings with pride, from families, with culture, with dreams. We are teachers, doctors and children. We love fiercely. We reject dehumanisation fiercely, and so I ask you, how dare you reduce us to statistics? 

“I stand before you as a mother, sister, daughter to hold up a mirror to your face. How many children must die before you act? How many more children must dig through rubble? How many more bodies must be starved into silence?”

Ahmad Abu Riziq, the founder of Gaza Great Minds, a group educating children, who joined the press conference from Gaza, said: “We are hungry. I am hungry. People, families, everyone goes to sleep without enough food.”

He lives in a tent, and sets up learning spaces for children in tents and destroyed buildings, so they do not have to miss out on their education. He said there is no safe place in Gaza, but they try to give children opportunities to smile.

Dr Mustafa Alachkar, a psychiatrist currently in Gaza working with Medical Aid for Palestinians, said death at scale has become the norm in Gaza. 

“You can see misery, despair, hunger, hopelessness, anger and fear in people’s eyes and on their faces. People are scared for their safety. They are scared of what’s to come. Every time they thought that they have faced the worst, they still realise that there is yet worse to come,” Alachkar said.

“Genocide has no limits. Some have already been displaced, eight, nine, 10, times. The thought of being displaced one more time is so unbearable that some are saying: ‘If we get the next evacuation order, I’m not moving. I would rather die here.’”

A friend told him that his three-year-old cries every day for hours as they have no bread to give her. Her face lights up if she has a little piece of bread.

A British citizen, Alachkar called on the UK government to “declare clearly that what is happening in Gaza is genocide, and to sop all arms sales in Israel”. He also said the government must urgently put pressure on Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza and restore humanitarian access.

The majority of Brits (62%) would support the UK putting economic sanctions on Israel, new polling from campaign group Global Justice Now revealed this week. Just 11% said they would oppose sanctions.

More than two thirds (the 65%) of people supported banning all arms sales to Israel until it ends its attacks on Gaza. And three in five would support a suspension of the existing trade deal between the UK and Israel.

When the Big Issue asked what the UK public can do to help, Husseini said: “People need to be doing absolutely everything in their power to put pressure on this government. Our government is deeply complicit and is actively participating in Israel’s genocide and assault. It is not just calling for humanitarian aid to get in. This is not a natural disaster. This is not an earthquake. This is a man-made starvation and ethnic cleansing of a population. 

“People need to be out on the streets marching. They need to be writing to their MPs. They need to be choosing where their pensions and investments go. They need to be boycotting products that are Israeli. 

“They need to be speaking up, having those conversations, speaking to friends and family members, and making sure that people understand this is not just an issue about Palestine. This is about our collective humanity and it goes far beyond Palestine. If this is allowed to happen here, it can happen anywhere.” 

Morhij said healthcare professionals and students in Gaza had not been paid in months. They were coming to work soaking wet because the tents they are living in does not protect them from the elements. They were surviving on one meal a day.

“The choices we faced as surgeons were unbearable, made without images, antibiotics, without sterile dressing, without nutrition, without psychological support, without prosthetics, without any hope of rehabilitation,” Morhij said. 

“Even if these patients survive, who would carry them around through the rubble in a world without wheelchairs or prosthetics? I amputated limbs with blunt instruments. We used cooking films to dress wounds and vinegar for infection. Children were small and severely malnourished. Their wounds would take ages to heal. Some never healed.”

Husseini said she feels devastated that this press conference has to be held at all – and she apologises to those who have joined from video call in Gaza and those who feel they have to share their most traumatic experiences to have any hope of getting help.

“I feel the fact that they have to be doing this, pleading for humanity to recognise them, is absolutely disgusting,” Husseini tells the Big Issue. “And it speaks to what has accompanied this genocide in this country and others – it’s systematic dehumanisation and racism that we face as Palestinians. 

“Even when we dare to speak up about our suffering, we are often silenced or oppressed or told that we’re not telling the truth. It’s devastating to have to do this. No human should have to do this. We always talk about the resilience of the Gazan people and how strong they are. They shouldn’t have to be. They should be able to live life as everyone gets to live their life.”

The UK government did not respond to the Big Issue’s request for comment.

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