Lisbon, July 3, 2025 (Lusa) - A Portuguese human rights activist entered the third day of an indefinite hunger strike Thursday to pressure the Portuguese government to recognise Palestine as a state and help end what he considers genocide.

Speaking to the Lusa news agency, Nuno Gomes, 57, an international truck driver, has been standing in front of and in the side garden of the parliament building in Lisbon since Tuesday.

“The reasons [for the hunger strike] are to denounce the genocide taking place in Gaza, which Portuguese media report inadequately. The event in Gaza is a genocide, not a war or a conflict,” stressed Nuno Gomes, a native of Lisbon and resident of Coimbra.

For the activist, who has been accompanied by his wife and two children, as well as several friends and activists, the Portuguese government refuses to recognise the State of Palestine and must force the urgent entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

He also demands that authorities allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and that Portuguese television stations show the “reality of the genocide” in the Palestinian territories perpetrated by Israel.

“The third aspect is the media, which is also very permissive on these issues and continues to mention only occasionally that what is happening in Gaza is genocide, not a war, not a conflict, but genocide,” he insisted.

Asked by Lusa about the fact that the Portuguese government has not yet recognised the State of Palestine, Nuno Gomes, who is on hunger strike during his holiday, replied that he sees it as “a great outrage”.

“That is why I am taking this action. Parliament has approved the recognition of the State of Palestine, but it is yet to put that decision into practice.”

The government must act. We should always be honest with the Portuguese people. Under international law, the State of Palestine has the right to recognition, and the Portuguese government must grant it, not least because Article 7 of the Constitution of the Republic says it must,” he added.

As for how long he will continue his hunger strike, Nuno Gomes explained that it will last “until the government recognises the State of Palestine, until humanitarian aid enters Gaza, and until the mainstream television stations, RTP, SIC and TVI, begin to report the news properly, and not as they are doing”.

Nuno Gomes said he will continue with the hunger strike anyway unless the three demands are met.

“I have decided to go on strike indefinitely, and I will stay here until they stop and do what I have asked them to do. Of course, we face risks because we are alive. An indefinite hunger strike can lead to death, that is true,” he acknowledged, downplaying the situation.

“But that’s how it is, we have to do something, we have to do something for the cause, because it’s genocide that’s at stake, and it’s children who are at stake, and I believe it’s better for me right now to focus on what I know will happen rather than on what might not happen.” “I focus on the children in Gaza who are being murdered, and I will keep my attention on them,” he concluded.

The war began when the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

The attack killed 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data, and 49 of the 251 people kidnapped that day remain hostages in Gaza, 27 of whom the Israeli army has declared dead.

The Israeli military retaliation campaign in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run Health Ministry for Gaza, which the UN considers reliable.

JSD/ADB // ADB.

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