Second annual New Year's Eve Vigil for Gaza on Derry's Peace Bridge

The second annual New Year's Eve Vigil for Gaza has taken place at Derry's Peace Bridge.

Speaking to The Derry News event co-organiser Catherine Hutton, chairperson of the Derry-Ireland Palestine Solidarity campaign (DIPSC) said “everyone has been changed by bearing witness to what has happened in Gaza in the past 17 months”.

“Things are getting worse in Gaza,” she added. “The UN is belatedly coming out today and saying these attacks on the hospitals could be war crimes.

“As we are standing here today, the people in Gaza are in sub-zero temperatures. Their tents are being destroyed by the storms. They have no food. They have no water. This is northern Gaza, southern Gaza is getting there as well.

“And still they are bombing.

“And also, I want to highlight the fact that Dr Hussam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital [in Gaza], is currently being detained by the Israeli army in Israel. He is in the notorious Sde Teiman prison [in the Negev desert near the border with Gaza], where Palestinians and some of the doctors from Gaza have been raped and murdered by the Israeli army,” she said.

Ms Hutton added that “everybody needs to campaign to get Dr Safia “freed immediately”.

“The symbol of him, walking in his white coat, into the back of an Israeli tank, that is of the ages,” she said.

“It takes me back to the First Intifada and the young boy throwing the stone at the jeep, or even Tiananmen Square and a person standing alone in front of the might of the Chinese army. That was what Dr Abu Safia did.”

View from the The Derry News (@DerryNow) this #NewYearsEve afternoon! #Derry #PeaceBridgeVigilForGaza pic.twitter.com/a3qiO497QB

— Catherine McGinty (@CathMcGin_Tea) December 31, 2024

Addressing the Vigil, a clearly emotional Majida al Askari said: “Today will be the last day of this year and tomorrow will be a new year, but, in Gaza it is different, it is still October 7.

“The people there still die every single minute and they are still suffering from having no food and no medicine and now, the latest terrible thing, what has happened to Dr Hussam and the hospital. It is really heartbreaking.”

Majida al Askari, who is from Palestine and now lives in Inishowen, recently discovered that several of her relatives, who had been prisoners in Syria's Saydnaya Prison – known as the 'human slaughterhouse' – were dead.

Several people participating in the Vigil shared their reasons for doing so with The Derry News.

Derry teacher Dermot Gallagher, who was representing the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) said he was on the Peace Bridge because “INTO supports the BDS movement [a non-violent Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel].

“I am here in solidarity with the innocent people that are being killed in Gaza for the last year and a half,” he added.

People Before Profit activist Goretti Horgan said she could not believe “the genocide we were protesting against last New Year's Eve is still going on”.

She added: “It is really hard to realise that even though the world is watching day by day, the massacres that are going on on a daily basis in Gaza and the West Bank, nothing is happening and the powers that be are allowing it to continue”.

Council presses new Dáil to pass Occupied Territories Bill

Irish people are on the ‘right side of history - Cllr Brian Tierney

Derry participates in all Ireland ‘Hunger for Justice: Gaza’ 24-hour fast

Fundraiser in aid of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees

Dúirt Pól Ó Muireasáin: “Tá sé tábhachtach teach amach agus beidh páirt sna himeachtaí, chun tacaíocht a thaispeáint do muintir na Phailistín.

“It is important to show up and support these types of events for the people of Palestine.

The Vigil concluded with a minute's silence, prior to which Catherine Hutton said: “The Israelis tell lies about sending 10,000 tonnes of aid in the last three months. Those lies are being reported by the BBC, RTÉ, Sky and CNN and all the other mainstream media outlets that are complicit in keeping this genocide going.”

To listen to all of the interviews and speeches at the New Year's Eve Peace Bridge Vigil, click on the X (formerly Twitter) link.