People in 100 cities around the world to go on hunger strike

People gather to hold a solidarity demonstration at the entrance of their village to protest Israeli attacks and blockade-induced starvation in Gaza on August 08, 2025 in East Jerusalem. (Saeed Qaq – Anadolu Agency)

A West Bank-based initiative has announced that people in 100 cities will take part in a global hunger strike demanding the end of the Gaza siege and war

Reposted from The New Arab, September 13, 2025

A Gaza solidarity movement announced on Saturday that people in 100 cities around the world will take part in a hunger strike later this month in support of the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip.

The Popular Movement in Support of Gaza announced from the city of Al-Bireh in the occupied West Bank that the global hunger strike will take place between 16 and 23 September.

The hunger strike comes after hundreds of people in Gaza perished from hunger and malnutrition due to Israel’s blocking of aid to the territory. Many of these were children.

The open hunger strike initiative, which began in July, has evolved into a global campaign dubbed “We Are All Gaza… We Are All Palestine”, Palestinian National Congress Secretary Ahmed Ghoneim told The New Arab’s sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

He explained the reasons behind the dates chosen for the hunger strike, noting that 16 September coincided with the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre in which hundreds of Palestinians were killed in Lebanon by militiamen allied with Israel.

Ghoneim said 23 September coincided with the opening of the UN General Assembly‘s 80th session.

He said the initiative was launched in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Al-Bireh and gradually spread to cities around the world.

“The most important development since the launch of the call and the strike about two months ago was the formation of the network, which now includes international figures and forms the nucleus of a global gathering leading this movement,” Ghoneim said during a news conference.

Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that “the hunger strike announced today represents an attempt to mobilise global solidarity groups across the world, as a form of solidarity with the Palestinian people, alongside other global campaigns such as the global coalition to support Palestine, the flotillas, and the anti-apartheid movement.”

Barghouti stressed that the goal of the global hunger strike was to send a message to Israel that the Palestinian people’s struggle is ongoing and “will not end until victory, just as the South African people achieved victory against apartheid”.

He called on the Arab and Islamic nations to take serious measures by imposing boycotts and sanctions on Israel and severing all normalisation agreements, considering boycotts and sanctions the most important means of effective solidarity with Palestine.

“The situation in Gaza constitutes crimes without borders, as 11 percent of Gaza’s population has been killed or wounded, and more than a million people are at risk of being exterminated,” he said, adding that Israel is exploiting everyone in the region, with complete American complicity.

He called on the Arab-Islamic summit expected to be held in Doha on Monday to impose sanctions and a comprehensive boycott on Israel and to cancel all forms of normalisation.

An unprecedented Israeli airstrike targeted Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital on September 09, killing five Palestinian Hamas members and a Qatari national.

Hamas said the airstrike failed to kill its top ceasefire negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya.

The attack sent shockwaves through the region and prompted global condemnation.

Qatar’s Gulf neighbours, like the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, share diplomatic ties with Israel, but the UAE strongly condemned the strike and said any attack on a Gulf state was an attack on the entire Gulf region.

The Monday summit will bring together Arab and Muslim leaders from around the world and is expected to result in a strong and unified stance against Israel’s attack.

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