Fresh pro-Palestine rallies sweep across world
Crowds participated in pro-Palestinian protests across the world on Sunday on the eve of the first anniversary of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip where nearly 42,000 people have lost their lives so far.
Sunday’s events followed massive rallies that took place Saturday in several European, African and Asian cities, including London, Berlin, Paris, Rome and Cape Town.
In Australia, thousands of people on Sunday protested in support of Palestinians and Lebanon in various cities.
Samantha Gazal, who came to the rally in Sydney, said she was there “because I can’t believe our government is giving impunity to a violent extremist nation and has done nothing. ... We’re watching the violence play out on livestream, and they’re doing nothing.”
On October 7 last year, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel’s positions in the occupied territories, killing nearly 1,200 Israelis and taking 250 people captives. In response, Israel launched a devastating war on Gaza, which has claimed the lives of more than 41,800 Palestinians so far.
In late September, Israel shifted some of its focus to Lebanon where it has killed more than 2,000 people there so far. Since the beginning of war in Gaza, Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has been exchanging fire with the Israeli army in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Tens of thousands of Moroccans also protested in Rabat on Sunday in support of Palestinians and against normalization of ties with Israel.
In the US, hundreds of people took to the streets of central Detroit and Washington, DC, in a show of support for Palestinians and Lebanese.
In Washington, more than a thousand protesters demonstrated outside the White House, demanding the United States, Israel’s top military supplier, stop providing weapons and aid to Israel.
Similar protests took place in the Canadian city of Toronto, as well as Mexico’s capital, Mexico City.
More than a thousand Indonesians gathered outside the US Embassy, calling for an independent Palestine and for the incoming Indonesian government to refuse the normalization of relations with Israel.
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of protesters also marched in cities around the world calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon.