Several European countries host mass anti-Israel rallies
Thousands of people once again took to the streets in several European capitals to protest against the Israeli genocidal war in the Gaza Strip as the regime’s strikes continue to claim the lives of innocent people in the Palestinian territory.
In the Spanish Basque city of San Sebastian, hundreds of people covered with white sheets lay on the ground to symbolize Palestinians killed during nearly 20 months of Israel’s onslaught on the Gaza Strip. The protesters called for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and called on their government to sever its relations with the regime. Since the beginning of war in Gaza on 2023, Spain has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip and has recognized the Palestinian state in a show of support for Palestinians.
Protesters also held a rally in Britain’s major city of Manchester where they called for an arms embargo on the regime. They also urged their government to shut down Israel’s arms factories in the UK. Stockholm and Athens were also the scene of protests against the Israeli regime which has claimed the lives of more than 54,000 Palestinians – most of them women and children – since October 2023.
On Sunday, at least 31 people were killed and over 170 were wounded while on their way to receive food in the Gaza Strip, according to health officials and multiple witnesses. The witnesses said Israeli forces fired on crowds around a kilometer from an aid site run by an Israeli-backed foundation. Residents and medics said Israeli soldiers fired from the ground at a crane nearby that overlooks the area, and a tank opened fire at thousands of people who were en route to get aid from the site in Rafah.
The Gaza government media office said Israel was using aid as a weapon, "employed to exploit starving civilians and forcibly gather them at exposed killing zones, which are managed and monitored by the Israeli military".
The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, condemned the deaths on Sunday, saying in a statement on X that "aid distribution has become a death trap." He said aid distribution should be "only through the United Nations, including UNRWA.”
The incident in Rafah in the south of the enclave was the latest in a series underscoring the insecurity around aid delivery to Gaza, following the easing of an almost three-month Israeli blockade last month. Hamas resistance group called for an independent UN investigation into the incident.
Israel has faced growing condemnation over the humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, where the United Nations has warned the entire population faces famine after no aid had been allowed to enter for more than two months.