Children at the Palestine rally wrote their names on their hands, imitating the heart-wrenching identification process Gazan parents undertake in case their loved ones fall victim to bombings.
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For the third week, Canberrans gathered at Garema Place to rally in solidarity with Gaza's 2.3 million people who have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory.
Gaza's health ministry said 7028 Palestinians had been killed in retaliatory air strikes, including 2913 children. The US State Department said it knows a significant number of people have died in Gaza but does not have independent confirmation of numbers, and it does not trust figures released by Hamas.
Israel has bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli communities. Israel says Hamas killed some 1400 people including children, and took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants.
Lama Qasem said the protest movement wanted the Australian government to begin working towards a solution to the conflict.
"We want the government to work towards a peaceful solution that ensures a better life for all, where children no longer need to have their names inscribed on their bodies to be identified," Ms Qasem said.
Doctors in Canberra that have worked in the Gaza Strip know how dire the situation is; they operate by flashlights, rationing anaesthetics and are running out of fuel to keep patients alive.
Dr Paul Porteous, professor at the Institute for Governance, University of Canberra, worked in the Middle East including the Al-Ahli hospital that was destroyed in disputed circumstances.
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He said many community hospitals in the Gaza Strip were not equipped with the equipment to deal with injuries caused by military violence.
"I think people don't realise that a hospital can't suddenly just change from a community hospital to an emergency hospital," he said.
"Many of these hospitals had to deal with hundreds of patients coming in with injuries that had occurred because of military violence."
Once the violence ends, the hospitals in Gaza return to caring for long term diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
"Many years ago when I was in the operating theatre in Al-Ahli hospital, we had a problem where the anaesthetic gas used to leak and there were a few cases where the entire surgical team would pass out," Dr Porteous said.
"We keep hearing about the religious splits and tensions, there was none of that at Al-Ahli, people worked side by side and focused on trying to help people get better."
Dr Ala Mustafa is a paediatric cardiologist at the Canberra Heart Clinic and is the president of the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association.
He said the hospitals were incapable of dealing with the surge of patients.
"There are about 2005 hospital beds and there are about 70,000 people injured. They're triaging people outside the hospital," he said.
With hundreds of civilians dying every day, Dr Mustafa said it was hard to keep count of the number of casualties and provide accurate data.
For Dr Mustafa, the civilian deaths hit close to home.
"One of my colleagues that I graduated with from the same university in Jerusalem passed away four days ago with his two brothers, their wives and about nine children after their house was hit overnight by an Israeli strike," he said.
"A ceasefire is mandatory now, a humanitarian corridor to allow medical supplies is necessary," Dr Mustafa said.
