'Stop the starvation': Hundreds protest in downtown Phoenix to end hunger in Gaza
Mohammad Riyad hoped to call attention to the impacts war has on women, just a day after International Women's Day.
He, along with roughly 300 protesters, gathered in downtown Phoenix on Saturday evening to raise awareness for the “starvation crisis” in Gaza amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, according to organizers.
The protest, which was held by the Palestinian American Community Circle in Civic Space Park, focused on the hunger that Palestinian women face as a consequence of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Riyad is the president of the organization.
“It's a day to recognize the woman’s role in society and to recognize their suffering and the mistreatment that they’ve had throughout history,” he said. “The women in Palestine are being mistreated. They’re being starved. They’re being denied their basic human rights.”
The rally came amid recent headlines reporting food insecurity in Gaza as Israel’s restrictions on aid have diminished the amount of supplies available in the enclave, according to CNN. Many of those impacted are women and children.
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“The message of this rally was to stop the starvation of the people because the situation has deteriorated in the Gaza Strip,” Riyad said. “Things have gotten worse. The people ran out of food supplies, medical supplies, clean water, and they are unable to get access to their basic needs, to secure the basic needs of their lives.”
As of December, all 2.2 million people in Gaza are not able to fulfill their food needs, with 1 in 4 inhabitants facing “catastrophic” levels of hunger, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
The rally was also held to call for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas and for humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, Riyad said. Protesters joined the event to chant throughout the streets of downtown Phoenix and raise signs emblazoned with “from the river to the sea” and “ceasefire” in bold letters. The Anti-Defamation League views “from the river to the sea” to be an anti-semitic slogan.
Police accompanied the protesters to direct traffic as they headed down Roosevelt Row to “disrupt” the businesses there by chanting from the street, said Aldo Soberón, a speaker at the protest.
Saturday’s event marked the ninth rally held by the Palestinian American Community Circle since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, according to Riyad. The goal of the protest was to motivate attendees and bystanders to pressure elected officials, including President Joe Biden, to put an end to starvation in Gaza, he added.
As of Jan. 10, Israel Defense Forces reported 1,391 Israelis had been killed since the Oct. 7 attack. Hamas terrorists killed approximately 1,200 people that day, wounding thousands more and taking hostages — making it the deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust.
As of Feb. 29, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 30,035 Palestinians have been killed and 70,457 wounded in Israel's offensive since Oct. 7. The ministry's figures do not differentiate between combatants and civilians but said women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.
“The goal of every protest and rally is we’re trying to disrupt and get people to notice, so we had a march,” Soberón said. “And we wanted to get people who are not in the movement to join.”
Madeline Nguyen is a breaking news reporter for The Republic. Reach her at [email protected] or 480-619-0285. Follow her on X @madelineynguyen.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Pro-Palestine protest supporting Gaza held in downtown Phoenix