A Gaza Strip eyewitness will speak at NIU Thursday.

Kathy Kelly, three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, will speak at 7 p.m., Thursday in the Illinois Room of the Holmes Student Center.

Kelly will speak about her experiences in Gaza during the recent conflict between Israel and the Hamas government of Gaza.

“Kathy is an eloquent spokesperson for the civilians caught in the cross-fire of war, those people whose suffering is so often referred to in news broadcasts as ‘collateral damage,'” said Dr. Maylan Dunn, co-coordinator of the DeKalb Interfaith Network for Peace and Justice in a press release.

Kelly entered Gaza at her own risk via Egypt and stayed for six days in the home of a Palestinian family located immediately outside the evacuation area.

“Every 11 minutes, there would be a huge bomb thudding down on the neighborhood,” Kelly said in the release.

After the cease-fire, Kelly traveled to Shifa Hospital where she talked to doctors who told her that patients were lying on the floor and dying before their eyes because they didn’t have enough materials to try to save all the people who were in desperate need.

The event is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Departments of Philosophy, History and Communication and by the DeKalb Interfaith Network for Peace and Justice.