THE PHOTOGRAPHER behind widely published images of a starving child in Gaza has shared a picture of a solidarity protest in Bath on his social media account.

Residents of Bath held an emergency protest on Thursday, July 24, calling for an end to starvation in Gaza. Some carried placards featuring a recent Daily Express front page showing a emaciated child and the headline: “For pity’s sake, stop this now.”

Now the photographer in Gaza behind the image, Ahmed al-Arini, has shared a picture of the protest on his Instagram account. He reposted a photograph by award-winning Bath-based photographer Jamie Bellinger of a woman at the protest in Bath holding aloft the Express front page outside the Guildhall.

Mr al-Arini’s pictures of one-year-old Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq with a bin liner for a nappy being held by his mother have been featured in newspapers across the world. Mr al-Arini told BBC Newshour through a translator: “People in the Gaza Strip feel that the rest of the world does not care one bit about them and what is happening to them and the suffering they are going through. So I took this photo to show the rest of the world what is happening to people here.”

Bathonians have regularly turned out for protests and vigils calling for an end to the conflict in Gaza since Israel invaded the occupied territory after Hamas’ October 7 attack. Thursday’s emergency protest was called in response to an appeal from Palestinian journalist and activist Bisan Odwa for people to protest the starvation of Gaza banging pots and pans.

In Bath, Imogen Mathers said: “We organised this protest in response to a direct appeal from the people of Gaza to demonstrate that the voices of ordinary human beings are united in solidarity with them. This genocidal violence and manmade starvation must end.

“Politicians in the UK are failing Palestinians and failing humanity — but ordinary people from all walks of life stand by the people of Gaza and will always support them with our voices, our actions, our solidarity, and our love.”

Among the people seen at the protest was Joanna Wright, a Green councillor for Lambridge on Bath and North East Somerset Council, who spent months trying to get Bath and North East Somerset Council to pass a motion calling on the government to urge a ceasefire in Gaza, after similar motions were passed by neighbouring Somerset Council and North Somerset Council.

It was originally judged to be unconstitutional as it did not relate to the council’s responsibilities and functions. But after members of Bath’s Palestinian community addressed the council in May 2024, describing receiving the “devastating news” of family members killed in Gaza, councillors unanimously backed a reworded peace motion at their next council meeting in July 2024.

Another recent vigil in Bath earlier this month saw Bathonians, including the city’s Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse, spend 18 hours taking turns to read aloud all 15,618 known names of children who had been killed in Gaza since October 7 2023.