It's been four weeks since a group of Mainers began a hunger strike to highlight the plight of starving Palestinians in Gaza.
Some of the 39 Mainers are fasting from sunrise to sunset. Others, including Erin Kiley of the Maine Coalition for Palestine, have limited their caloric intake to 250 calories a day.
"We may not be able to envision people in Gaza starving because they feel so distant from us," says Kiley. "But when someone sees me — I've lost 18 pounds in 27 days — so when someone sees me hungry, sees me making this choice, it's changing their perspective."
Kiley says the group is demanding the resumption of humanitarian aid under United Nations authority. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while trying to get aid under the current system run under the authority of Israel and the U.S. Kiley is urging people to keep their attention on Gaza as Israel and Iran trade air strikes.
"War is not a solution," she says. "More aggression is not going to solve any of these endemic problems. But more importantly we can't lose focus because hundreds of people are still dying every single day in Gaza. The starvation is still raging in Gaza."
The Coalition is also calling for the U.S. to stop arming Israel.
The group has met with Independent U.S. Sen. Angus King and has an upcoming meeting with Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree. Kiley says Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden and Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins haven't responded to meeting requests.
