Image of maimed Palestinian boy projected onto London hospital in 'guerilla Gaza protest'

An image of a wounded Palestinian child was projected onto the wall of St. Thomas' Hospital in London on Monday, as activists try to raise awareness of the devasting cost of Israel's war on Gaza, where thousands of children have been killed and maimed.

The image of the boy, eight-year-old Siraj Hanouna was displayed with the caption "Don't look Away", adding that Siraj "was lucky to survive" but "11,000 children did not". The boy appears to have lost a leg and arm and his image has been shared online.

Ben Jamal, head of the UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), said that the event was organised by activists who wanted to "amplify calls for a ceasefire in Gaza".

"Palestinian children are the most vulnerable victims of this genocide, and our leaders are complicit by failing to hold Israel to account, failing to call for a ceasefire and continuing to sell arms to a regime committing 'the crime of crimes'," Jamal said in a statement to The New Arab.

Howard Beckett, the Unite union's assistant general secretary, wrote on X:  "St. Thomas' Hospital in London displaying the pictures and names of Palestinian children murdered and injured in Gaza. Amazing show of solidarity from those who care for the most vulnerable. The political ‘leaders’ do not speak for the people."

St. Thomas' Hospital in London displaying the pictures and names of Palestinian children murdered and injured in Gaza.

Amazing show of solidarity from those who care for the most vulnerable.

The political ‘leaders’ do not speak for the people.

pic.twitter.com/T5hCTOZQ5U

— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) January 29, 2024

Others raised the issue of the decision by several states to defund the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees.

"While the Western governments dropped UNRWA support, St. Thomas Hospital displayed evidence of genocide in Gaza,"  Dr. Gamaleldin Soliman, medical practitioner of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said on X,

After the images went viral, the Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust released a statement to clarify that the hospital was not involved in the screening of the images.

"We are aware of a video currently circulating on social media of images being projected on to the side of St Thomas' Hospital," the statement read on X. 

"While we are appalled by the loss of all innocent lives during conflict, this video was not created by or with the permission of the Trust."

Gaza's health authorities have said that within the last 24 hours, 114 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza, with a further 249 people injured. 

This brings Gaza's death toll to 26,751 Palestinians killed and 65,636 wounded – most of whom are women and children.

British charity Save the Children's director in the occupied Palestinian Territories, Jason Lee, previously said the humanitarian situation in the aid-dependent Gaza Strip had drastically deteriorated, saying that "babies are being born into a nightmare, a humanitarian catastrophe". 

Gaza was also proclaimed to be "the most dangerous place in the world" for a child, according to the UN children's agency (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder in December of last year, expressing his rage at the situation there after his visit from the besieged Palestinian territory. 

"I'm furious that those with power shrug at the humanitarian nightmares unleashed on a million children," Elder said.