2023-10-19 03:01:00
In different parts of the world, but especially in the Middle East, demonstrations were recorded this Wednesday in repudiation of the bombing of the al Ahli hospital in the Gaza Strip and in defense of Palestine. The marches, massive in some cases such as in Yemen, Tunisia or Jordan, reflected criticism both of Israel’s war actions and of the absolute protection of Europe and the United States. The protests spread to countries such as the United Kingdom, Greece, Germany and Canada.
Hamas, the Palestinian resistance movement that controls the territory, accuses Israel of being responsible for the attack. The Israeli Army rejects these accusations and attributes the bombing to a failed rocket launch by Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, which in turn described this accusation as a “lie.”
“Serial massacres”
In the United States, regarding 400 Jewish protesters from a peace group, including 25 rabbis, gathered inside a Capitol building in Washington, protesting the war and in defense of the population of the Gaza Strip. Thousands more demonstrated in front of the legislative building.
Around the Israeli embassy in Amman, some 5,000 Jordanians gathered to demand the expulsion of the Israeli diplomatic mission following the attack. Security forces blocked routes leading to the embassy. However, the demonstration gained strength in the face of street fury in Jordan, a country that hosts a large number of Palestinian refugees.
In Tunisia, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in front of the French embassy, condemning Western support for Israel. Some carried Palestinian flags while others demanded the expulsion of the ambassador, accusing France of being part of the “Western allies of the Zionists.”
In Lebanon, hundreds of people participated in a demonstration called by Hezbollah in its stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, waving Palestinian and Shiite party flags. “What is happening in Gaza is not a conflict or a war, serial massacres are committed,” declared a senior official of the movement, Hashem Safiedine.
Since October 8, Hezbollah has been exchanging attacks with Israel in the border areas between both countries and fear is growing in Lebanon that the war will spread to its territory. In Damascus, the Syrian capital, hundreds of people gathered near Parliament, many of them wearing T-shirts with the image of President Bashar al-Assad. Thousands of Egyptians also demonstrated in different cities.
Among other Muslim countries, Turkey will declare three days of national mourning for the attack on the Gaza hospital. “A three-day mourning period will come into effect as a sign of solidarity with the pain of these innocents,” said Omer Çelik, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). 63 people were injured and five were arrested in Wednesday’s demonstrations once morest Israel. Additionally, a 65-year-old protester died of a heart attack in Istanbul.
In Iran, President Ebrahim Raisi accused the United States of being “complicit in the crimes” of Israel. “The bombs that fall on the population of Gaza are American. The world considers the United States to be complicit in the crimes of the Zionist regime,” Raisi declared before thousands of protesters gathered in a square in Tehran.
In Yemen, the marches were massive in areas controlled by the Houthi rebels, who since the beginning of the war in Gaza showed their support not only for the Palestinian people under attack, but also for Islamist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. There he marched under the cry of “Death to America, death to Israel” and flags of both countries were trampled and burned.
Protests in Europe and America
Hundreds of people also gathered this Wednesday near Downing Street, where the official residence of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is located, in protest once morest the attack on the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza. Carrying Palestinian flags and banners reading slogans such as “Palestine will be free”, the crowd, who braved the rain that fell during the followingnoon in London, observed three minutes of silence for the victims of the attack.
In several German cities, hundreds of people took to the streets to express their rejection of the attack on the hospital. In Berlin, police reported that two Molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue, although no injuries or damage were reported. Several Spanish cities such as Madrid, Seville and Girona expressed their solidarity with Palestine with different demonstrations.
Some 10,000 people gathered in the central Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece to demand “freedom for Palestine” in front of Parliament, before marching to the Israeli Embassy. “History has only one right side, we are with Palestine until freedom” shouted the protesters, many of them carrying Palestinian flags.
In Lisbon, Portugal, hundreds of people demanded an end to the “aggression” on the Gaza Strip and to defend the rights of the Palestinian people. A little further away, in the United States, large cities such as New York and Washington held spontaneous protests. In an unprecedented event, around 400 American Jews, including 25 rabbis, protested inside the Capitol demanding that legislators call for a ceasefire.
Thousands of people gathered Tuesday night in front of the Israeli consulate in Toronto, Canada, to protest the bombing of the hospital and express their support for the Palestinian people. Hundreds more did the same in front of the Palestinian embassy in Bogotá and in the Puerto Rican city of San Juan.
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