Protests took place in major cities around the world, including London, Madrid and Istanbul.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets around the world to protest the war in Gaza as Israel vows to continue its offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza.
Waving pro-Palestinian flags and banners, thousands of people marched through the streets of Madrid, Spain, to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The crowd marched through the closed streets of the Spanish capital, from Atocha station to the central Plaza del Sol square, behind a large banner reading: Freedom for Palestine.
Many carried signs reading “Peace for Palestine” and “Don’t ignore Palestinian suffering.”
At least six ministers from Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet also participated in the protest, five from the left-wing Sumar party, its coalition partners, as well as Transport Minister Oscar Puente from the prime minister’s Socialist party.
“We need an immediate ceasefire, an end to the massacres and attacks against innocent people, we must achieve the release of all the hostages,” Puente told reporters at the start of the march.
In London, the British capital, around 250,000 people took part in the demonstration demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, according to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).
Today, 250,000 people took to the streets to demand a #CeasefireNOW has #StopGazaGencide. We won’t stop until Palestine is free 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/NPE5nqJpuZ
– CFP (@PSCupdates) February 17, 2024
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Harry Fawcett said from London that organizers said the demonstration in London was expected to be among the three largest in scale since the Gaza war began in October.
“This could be an indication of growing concern over the situation in Gaza, ahead of Israel’s planned intensification of military operations in Rafah in the south. YouGov released a poll showing that two thirds of Britons now support an immediate ceasefire,” Fawcett said.
Fawcett said the bulk of the march arrived in front of the Israeli embassy, where solidarity speeches and a static demonstration took place.
Organizers also timed the start of the march to ensure that an event at a nearby Jewish synagogue ended.
More than 1,500 police officers took to the streets of London to control the demonstration.
According to the Metropolitan Police, 12 people were arrested for offenses relating to the signs, assaults on police officers and refusing to remove their face coverings.
“Despite these arrests, the overwhelming majority of participants were peaceful and acted entirely within the law,” police said in a statement posted on social media platform X.
Pro-Israeli groups have attempted to portray the mass pro-Palestinian movement in the UK as anti-Semitic. The protest movement sees this as an attempt to whitewash the Israeli assault on Gaza, which killed nearly 29,000 people.
Pro-Palestinian protests also took place in Sweden and other countries, where people demanded that Israel end its offensive on Rafah and call for a ceasefire.
Protests in Israel
Protests also took place in Tel Aviv, the Israeli capital, and outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in West Jerusalem, with demonstrators calling for a prisoner exchange deal and immediate elections in the country.
The rallies took place following Netanyahu’s decision last week not to send an Israeli delegation to Cairo to continue negotiations on a deal to free more than 100 captives still held in Gaza.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum called the decision a “death sentence” for the remaining prisoners.
But at a press conference on Saturday, Netanyahu denounced the possibility of elections in Israel now. He also said that “Israeli military pressure is working” against Hamas, saying the army has “reached areas of Gaza that the enemy would never have imagined.”
“Anyone who tells us not to operate in Rafah is telling us to lose an ear,” he added, asserting that the Israeli army would attack Rafah – a town in southern Gaza that is now home to more than a million of displaced Palestinians – even if an agreement was reached. the release of the captives is concluded with Hamas.
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