Nadia El-Nakla: My family starves in Gaza while the world watches
Think of the anger and heartbreak so many of us feel watching the images of emaciated children. Now imagine living through that nightmare, watching your own children crying in pain, while you yourself haven't had a proper meal or adequate water in nearly 40 degree heat, for days.
All of this, while knowing that tonnes of food and aid is merely kilometres away, but deliberately being withheld from you, in an attempt to slowly kill you and your people.
And of course, the entire world is watching, and world leaders from across the globe are impotently inactive. At best, they produce statements, but words are not enough to feed a family. At worst, too many governments continue to be complicit in the genocide we are witnessing, such as the UK Government.
The Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, described the scenes of starvation in Gaza as 'grotesque'. Not grotesque enough to stop selling the Israeli government weapons and munitions, not grotesque enough to stop training IDF soldiers in the UK, not grotesque enough to stop RAF flights over [[Gaza]] that are reportedly feeding the Israelis with intelligence.
Humza and I have been flooded by messages from people right across the world who are both angered and heartbroken at the scenes we are witnessing in Gaza. All of them are asking the same question 'What more can we do?'
READ MORE: Donald Trump protest near mother's birthplace planned for Scotland visit
Firstly, it is important we keep going, we keep petitioning, pressuring and pleading with the Government to use all the levers at their disposal to end this man-made humanitarian catastrophe.
From banning international journalists from entering Gaza, to targeting and killing those reporters who live in Gaza – the Israeli government is doing its best to silence the voices of the people of Gaza, to hide the truth.
That is why we need to keep raising our voices.
The time for mealy-mouthed statements from our leaders is over. When pregnant mothers can no longer get the basic nourishment they require, it is time to stop equivocating.
The first set of actions the UK Government must take it to end its complicity in the genocide we are witnessing.
There can be no justification to continue to sell arms to a regime headed by a man wanted by the world's highest criminal court for war crimes, and crimes against humanity, including using starvation as a weapon of war.
They UK must stop all elements of security and defence co-operation with Israel. From RAF reconnaissance flights over Gaza to training IDF soldiers – all of it must end, and end immediately.
READ MORE: Daily Express front page piles pressure on Labour to act on Gaza
Next, we must maintain the pressure on the UK Government to treat the government of Israel as the apartheid South African regime was once treated. That must include meaningful sanctions on senior individuals like Netanyahu, but also economic and trade sanctions so Israel feels pressure from the international community.
Our children and future generations will study the Gaza Genocide, and wonder how on earth we could possibly let it happen. At the very least, every single one of us alive today has a responsibility to ensure we are on the right side of history.
If starving children can not force the world to act, then humanity is completely lost.
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