Tens of thousands of people hit the streets across the world as Israel’s devastating war in Gaza approaches the one-year mark.
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in major cities around the world to condemn the Israeli military operations in Gaza as the war in the Palestinian territory nears the one-year mark.
In the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, more than 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the embassy of the United States, demanding that Washington, Israel’s top military supplier and ally, stop sending weapons to Israel.
“We are appealing to the hearts of all the leaders of the world to rise up and move and liberate them [Palestinians] from the oppression carried out by Israel,” a demonstrator told media.
“This is no longer a religious issue but truly a humanitarian issue – not just for Muslims but all who claim to be Muslim,” said another protester, holding his child on his shoulders and carrying a Palestinian flag.
In the Philippines, dozens of left-wing activists protested near the US embassy in Manila, where police prevented them from getting closer to the seaside compound.
In Cape Town in South Africa, hundreds walked to parliament, chanting: “Israel is a racist state!” and “We are all Palestinian!” Pro-Gaza marches were also planned Saturday in Johannesburg and Durban.
In Caracas, hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested outside the United Nations’s headquarters for Venezuela, carrying a giant Palestinian flag. They delivered a petition to the UN calling for an end to the “genocide” of the Palestinians.
Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The war in the besieged enclave has displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million people, who have been subjected to widespread hunger and disease, leading to genocide allegations against Israel by several countries at the International Court of Justice.
Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters in Italy’s capital Rome as their demonstration turned violent, officials said.
Police attack Rome protesters
Several thousand demonstrated peacefully on Saturday afternoon, chanting “Free Palestine, Free Lebanon!” They waved Palestinian flags and held banners calling for an immediate stop to the conflict.
The rally had been calm until a smaller group tried to push the rally towards the centre of the city, despite a ban by local authorities who had refused to authorise protests, citing security concerns.
Some 40,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London on Saturday, one of its biggest rallies in a year.
“Unfortunately, in spite of all our goodwill, the Israeli government does not take any notice, and they just go ahead and continue their atrocities in Gaza, now also in Lebanon and in Yemen, and also probably in Iran,” Agnes Kory, a protester in London, told the Reuters news agency.
“And our government, our British government, unfortunately is just paying lip service and carries on supplying weapons to Israel,” she added.
In Dublin, several hundred people took to the streets, waving Palestinian flags and chanting: “Ceasefire now!”
In France, thousands of people marched in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Strasbourg to express solidarity with the Palestinians.
Lebanese-French protester Houssam Houssein told Reuters in Paris he feared a “regional war, because there are tensions with Iran at the moment, and perhaps with Iraq and Yemen”.
“We really need to stop the war because it’s now become unbearable,” he added.
Reporting from the protest site at Paris’s Republique Plaza, media’s Natacha Butler said demonstrators expressed frustration the war had been ongoing for more than a year and the “international community is simply not doing anything”.
“They feel that France isn’t doing enough to protect civilians and the people who are really suffering,” she said.
About 5,000 people joined a pro-Palestinian protest in Madrid, brandishing signs with messages such as “Boycott Israel!”
In Washington, more than 1,000 protesters demonstrated outside the White House on Saturday, demanding the US stop providing weapons and aid to Israel.
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