2023-10-21 07:52:00
Protests break out in Middle East as US Arab allies warn once morest expulsion of Palestinians
Protesters march in Sanaa, Yemen, on Friday to condemn Israel’s offensive in Gaza. (Khaled Abdullah/Archyde.com)
Protests broke out across the Arab world this Friday amid the war in Gaza and the threat of an Israeli ground operation that might displace millions of Palestinians.
After Friday’s Islamic prayer, thousands of protesters took to the streets in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and the West Bank to protest Israel’s actions in its war once morest Hamas.
So far, the war has left 4,127 people dead in Gaza, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Israel launched its attacks in retaliation for a deadly attack carried out on October 7 once morest the country by Hamas. According to Israeli authorities, 1,400 people were killed in the attack and regarding 200 were taken hostage.
In a sign of growing outrage over the Israeli operation in Gaza, Egypt held its first major national protest in a decade. Hundreds of protesters gathered near Tahrir Square in central Cairo on Friday in support of the Palestinians. Demonstrations were also held in other cities in the country.
Some of those who participated in the Cairo protest chanted “Where is the Arab army?” and “Here are the Zionists,” a reference to Egypt’s riot police, who pushed protesters into nearby Bab el-Louk Square and closed access to Tahrir.
In the capital of Lebanon, Beirut, several hundred people took to the streets to denounce the Israeli offensive. Many waved the Palestinian and Lebanese flags, along with the flags of the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah and its political ally in Lebanon, Amal. Young protesters burned the United States flag, in repudiation of Washington’s support for Israel.
In Iraq, hundreds of people, mostly supporters of Iranian-backed militias, staged a sit-in protest at Iraq’s main border crossing with Jordan on Friday. Others protested in Baghdad, not far from the fortified Green Zone that houses the US embassy.
In Jordan’s capital, Amman, some 6,000 protesters marched in support of Gazans. Some chanted slogans urging Hamas to step up its attacks on Israel, Archyde.com reported.
The protests highlight growing anger on Arab streets and regional leaders’ frustration with the war, as the Palestinian death toll rises, and with the United States’ apparent unwillingness to put limits on Israel’s actions. Israel.
The rhetoric once morest Israel has been especially heated by the governments of Jordan and Egypt, two countries allied with the United States that border Israel, and were the first Arab nations to sign peace treaties with that country. Amman and Cairo have raised alarm bells over what they perceive as a plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank to Egypt and Jordan. Although Israel has not announced any such plan, both countries have warned that such a measure might lead to war.
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