Thousands of Palestinians protested in the West Bank’s major cities Sunday against the war in Gaza and in support of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

One of the largest marches took place in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, located just north of Jerusalem, with hundreds gathering at the main square, waving Palestinian flags.

Many protesters carried photos of Palestinians killed or imprisoned by Israel, as well as photos depicting the hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip, where UN-backed experts have said famine is unfolding.

“My son is in Megiddo prison and he suffers from many things, such as the lack of medicine and the lack of food,” Rula Ghanem, a Palestinian academic and writer who took part in the march, told AFP, referring to an Israeli maximum security facility that has been accused of abusing inmates.

She told AFP that her son had lost 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and suffered from scabies in jail.

The number of Palestinians jailed by Israel has skyrocketed since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. Israel says it has detained some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank in that time, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.

According to the PA’s Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs, some of those detained were arrested for posting political statements on social media.

The commission’s spokesman Thaer Shriteh told AFP: “The international community is a partner in all this suffering, as long as it does not intervene quickly to save the Palestinian people and save the prisoners inside the prisons and detention centers.”

One group of protesters at the Ramallah demonstration dressed as skeletons and carried dolls around to symbolize the Gaza war’s dire effect on children, who are most at risk of malnutrition.

“We hope that our stand today will have an impact in supporting our people in Gaza and the hungry children in Gaza,” said 39-year-old Tagreed Ziada, one of the protesters at the Ramallah march.

Israel has denied reports of widespread starvation in Gaza and has accused Hamas of hijacking aid deliveries.

Protests were also held Sunday in other major Palestinian cities such as Nablus in the north and Hebron in the south, with many employees of the Palestinian Authority receiving a day off to attend the demonstrations.

While there have been somewhat regular demonstrations against the war in Gaza, they are rarely coordinated across various cities in the West Bank.