AROUND 50 IRISH people will take part in a march from Cairo to Gaza this month, demanding Israel fully open the Rafah crossing to allow humanitarian aid through.

The delegation, which will join 2,500 other people from 60 countries, will walk through the desert for two days in hopes of drawing attention to Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza.

They will meet in Cairo on 13 June and depart the next day for the Sinai Desert, where temperatures reach highs of 32 to 35 degrees Celsius at this time of year. They will camp there overnight.

A number of healthcare workers are involved in the march.

They will end their march at the Rafah crossing, where they will stay for another two days.

Karen Moynihan, a spokesperson for March to Gaza Ireland, spoke to The Journal about the demonstration.

“It’s not going to be the most pleasant conditions, but it doesn’t matter if we think about what the people of Palestine have been living through every day for 19 months,” she said.

“The people of Ireland and the people of the world are not willing to sit by any longer and just wait.”

She said Israel is committing an “absolutely barabaric genocide” and Ireland has not taken sufficient action to stop it.

The government recently voted against a Sinn Féin Bill that sought to stop the Irish Central Bank facilitating the sale of Israeli “war bonds” across the EU.

Cabinet last month approved the drafting of the long-awaited Occupied Territories Bill, which will ban goods from the illegal settlements in Palestine. It is unclear when the Bill will be passed.

“Every government has an option and has a choice,” said Moynihan.

“The international community has not put any sanctions [on Israel], nothing of any significance. It’s all been words.”

The group is demonstrating in partnership with the Soumoud convoy, which comprises nine buses holding hundreds of Tunisians who say they want to break the blockade into Gaza.

They departed today, hours after the Madleen ‘Freedom Flotilla’ was intercepted by Israel. A dozen people were on board the boat, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg.

The group beginning their march later this week will join them in calling for food and medical supplies to flow freely by land and sea into Gaza.

The United Nations has warned that Gaza’s entire population of more than two million people is at risk of starvation.

“We have the power as an international community to change this immediately,” said Moynihan.

March to Gaza says it has informed all the Egyptian embassies of its demonstration and has asked the Egyptian authorities for support.

On whether she is concerned about the safety of participants, Moynihan said their demonstration is peaceful and non-political and the onus is on others to respect that.

The health ministry in Gaza said that the overall toll for the war since 7 October has reached 54,880, the majority of the dead being civilians.