• Pro-Palestine supporters gather across Europe, Africa, Australia and the Americas
• US urged to stop providing weapons, aid to Israel
• Moroccans denounce kingdom’s 2020 normalisation with Israel
• UN chief calls for end to ‘shocking violence’

WASHINGTON/LONDON: Tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities around the world over the weekend calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon as the conflict in the Palestinian territory neared the one-year mark.

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.

One man attempted to set himself on fire, journalists saw, succeeding in lighting his left arm ablaze before bystanders and police extinguished the flames.

Thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters also gathered in cities across Europe, Africa, Australia and the Americas to demand an end to the conflict, which has killed nearly 42,000 people in Gaza.

‘Worse and worse’

A pro-Palestinian protest in Rome that drew thousands of people turned violent, as dozens of young demonstrators threw bottles and firecrackers at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannon. At least one policeman was wounded and two protestors were detained, journalists said. “Israel is a criminal state!” the demonstrators shouted.

A pro-Palestinian demonstration drew over 1,000 protestors in the German capital, police said. At the “National March for Palestine” in London, chants of “stop bombing civilians” were joined by shouts of “hands off Lebanon”.

While the rally in London was largely peaceful, at least 15 people were arrested, including three on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker and one on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation.

In France, thousands of people marched in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Strasbourg to express solidarity with Palestinians, journalists said.

Around 5,000 people joined a pro-Palestinian protest in Madrid, brandishing signs with messages such as “Boycott Israel”.

Worldwide protest

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.

In Indonesia, more than a thousand people gathered outside the US embassy in Jakarta for a rally on Sunday morning, a journalist saw.

In Australia, thousands of pro-Palestinian protestors thronged the streets of Sydney and other major Australian cities, holding placards that read “stop arming Israel”.

UN chief

The UN secretary general called for an immediate end to the “shocking violence and bloodshed” in Gaza and Lebanon in a statement ahead of the anniversary of the Palestinian group’s Oct 7 raid.

“This is a day for the global community to repeat in the loudest voice our utter condemnation of the abhorrent acts of Hamas, including the taking of hostages,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a message released on Saturday evening.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2024