An all-day symbolic protest and hunger strike called End the Starvation of Gaza was held outside the Embassy of Palestine in Nicosia on Tuesday.

“The situation in Gaza has exceeded all limits of human endurance,” said Palestinian ambassador Abdullah Attari. “The murderous state, the genocidal regime, continues its criminal actions, unpunished, while the international community is silent. It just stays silent.”

There were only a handful of protesters, partly because the event was organised at short notice – though also because it ran from 9am to 4pm and was held outdoors, in the middle of a heatwave, so participants had to protest in shifts.

Signs and banners ranged from ‘Israel is Committing Genocide’ and ‘Boycott Israel, De-Fund Genocide’, to ‘Gaza is Not Facing Hunger, Gaza is Being Starved’ and ‘Starvation Means Your Body is Eating Itself to Survive’.

But the most poignant sign was perhaps the fake road sign in the courtyard of the embassy, an arrow pointing south-east with the words: ‘State of Palestine, 420km’ – a reminder of just how close to us the Gaza tragedy is unfolding.

“First of all, it’s right next door,” Alexander, one of the protesters, told the Cyprus Mail when asked why this particular horror hits Cypriots harder than similar horrors in Darfur or Rwanda.

Secondly, “the difference between this genocide and others is that this genocide you can watch live on TV, you can see online footage… And very sadly, the international community – including the European Union, of which we are part – is turning a blind eye.”

Photos: Christos Theodorides

Not only that, said Alexander, but those speaking out against the genocide – “or the ethnic cleansing, or whatever you want to call it” – are routinely tarred as anti-Semites, an accusation he completely rejects.

“We are anti-Zionists. We are anti-genocide-ists. Not anti-Semites. And anyway, the Arabs and the Palestinians are also Semites!”

The protest came with the man-made famine in Gaza worsening steadily, and a day after the UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestine, posted on X that “We are receiving desperate messages of starvation from #Gaza… Food prices have increased 40-fold.”

The question on everyone’s mind – though not explicitly mentioned at the protest – is now what the endgame might involve, and whether the Palestinians will eventually agree to leave Gaza, after their spirit has been broken by starvation and famine.

“No way!” a Gaza-born protester assured the Cyprus Mail. “This is the thing that they will never understand… We stick to our land.”

“Yes, they are starving the population. Yes, the population will run to anywhere where there is food – even if they go to Egypt, to Cyprus, to Canada, anywhere. They will eat, they will be fit. Then they will get back to Gaza.”

The heat was stifling and intense. Alik, a Cypriot student, broke off the interview abruptly, saying she didn’t feel well, and hurried into the embassy for a drink of water.

She re-emerged a few minutes later, saying she’d almost fainted from the heatwave – then mused that the same heatwave is probably beating down on Gaza too.

“They haven’t had anything to eat or drink for days,” she said. “And look at me… I start fainting from the first day.”