Seven-year-old boy leads  protest in Cork over Gaza bloodshed

Raslan Hassainan chanted into a microphone as hundreds of people of all nationalities waved the Palestinian flag behind him, some carrying photos of victims of the violence. Picture: Larry Cummins

“Palestine will be free,” a seven-year-old boy from Gaza shouted as he led more than 1,000 people through the streets of Cork protesting the bloodshed in his home city.

Raslan Hassainan chanted into a microphone as hundreds of people of all nationalities waved the Palestinian flag behind him, some carrying photos of victims of the violence.

His mother, Malika Ahakkam said that much of their family in Gaza are now dead.

“My cousin was waiting 14 years to have a baby. Finally she was having a baby and last week a bomb fell on her house.

“20% of people’s families are gone in one airstrike.

“I’ll never be able to say how it feels to be here today [at the protest supported by strangers].” 

Rola Hamed-O’Neil, a fellow Palestinian now living in Cork, said that she had to come to the protest to express revulsion at what she said was genocide in her country.

“I’m here to call for a stop to the genocide and to protest the war crimes against the Palestinian people, my people.

It doesn’t matter what someone’s skin colour, ethnicity, race is, we’re here to show that Irish people will not accept these genocidal practices against any people. Strong power and harassment will not create peace, it will create more violence, hate and violation of human rights.

“We need real peace for once.” 

Originally from Nazareth, Ms Hamed-O’Neil moved to Cork with her Irish husband when they wanted to start a family as they felt Ireland was more stable and safer.

She said that not all Palestinians support Hamas and that she is secular and against harming civilians.

Israel is also discriminating against Jewish citizens who show empathy to the Palestinian cause, she said, in an increasingly polarized country.

“Friends and family back in Israel cannot write anything critical of the regime on social media anymore.

“I know a Jewish guy who called for a ceasefire and his home address was published and his home was targeted by protestors. He had to go into hiding.” 

Orla O’Leary, who is replacing Eolan Ryng as Sinn Féin Cork City councilor for the South West Ward, brought her five-month-old baby to the protest.

Palestine Solidarity rally in Cork City. Picture: Larry Cummins

“Israel bombs schools in Gaza and calls it defence,” Ms O’Leary said.

“Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children in the full sight of the world.

“My baby daughter was born five months ago in the safety of the CUH. Today, there are 50,000 pregnant woman in Gaza. 5,500 are due to give birth in the next 30 days without access to clean water or electricity. Many of them are on the move fleeing their home and trying to find safety. Every time they move, they are dodging bombs and air strikes.

“We’ve all seen the pictures of Palestinian mothers inconsolably weeping over their dead children. Their entire world collapsed forever into tiny, white body bags.

“Fathers desperately trying to dig their children out of the rubble, knowing that they’ve breathed their last.

“This is a criminal war on the young.

“Half of Gaza’s population is under 18.

When my daughter grows up as she reads about this atrocity and she asks, ‘what did I do?’ I will tell her that I stood at the centre of her home city, with brave and courageous activists and with good people who cherish justice, human rights and equality. And we marched and we demonstrated and with one voice we called on Israel to stop its reprehensible slaughter of Palestinian people.

Ms O’Leary called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

She also called for the Israeli ambassador in Ireland to lose their diplomatic status.

“We [the Irish people] know very well the cost of brutal occupation,” she said.

“Collective punishment of an impoverished, civilian population is a war crime.

“As Israel continues to massacre men, women and children and violate international law it is clear that the position of the Israeli ambassador is untenable,” she said.

As an Israeli offensive targets northern Gaza this weekend, the US estimates that some 400,000 people remain there.

Israel has called for civilians to leave the area and move south.

But the United Nations has said that nowhere in Gaza is safe, as air strikes have also targeted the south of the strip.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused any temporary ceasefire in Gaza until all Israeli hostages are released.

Israel began its attack on Gaza after Hamas, the militant group which runs the Gaza strip, slaughtered more than 1,400 people in Israel, many of whom were civilians, and kidnapped more than 200 others.

More than 9,400 people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict erupted on October 7, according to the Gaza health ministry.

People were trapped in Gaza until Wednesday when the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened to allow some civilians out.

But the BBC reports that on Saturday, that border closed again following a reported dispute over evacuating injured patients.

On Saturday, no foreign nationals, dual nationals or injured patients were let through, Palestinian sources told the BBC.