Thousands of people in various countries across the world have held pro-Palestinian rallies in condemnation of the Israeli regime’s savagery against Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip.
About 5,000 Australians, by media estimates, attended a peaceful pro-Palestinian rally in Sydney, the capital of Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales, on Sunday despite police threats to curb such demonstrations.
The Australian protesters waved Palestine flags and chanted “Free, free Palestine” as hundreds of police patrolled the area.
“We are not against Jewish people,” said Mustafa, a protester at the rally. “They have been in Palestine for a long time, side by side with the Muslims and the Christians, we are all Palestinians. We are against the Zionists.”
Thousands also held pro-Palestine rallies in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and in the Victorian state capital of Melbourne.
The cities of Rome in Italy and Berlin in Germany were also the scene of protests against the Israeli crimes in Gaza on Sunday.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched in central London a day earlier and called for an end to Israel’s military action in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The protesters, many of them waving Palestinian flags and signs saying “Free Palestine,” gathered close to Oxford Circus from where they headed to Downing Street.
Also on Sunday, Turkish protesters in two of the country’s largest cities voiced their support for Palestinians and condemned Israel’s war on Gaza.
The crowd in Istanbul marched from the Beyazit Mosque to the Hagia Sophia, chanting slogans against Israel. In Ankara, protesters in Anitpark waved Palestinian and Turkish flags.
“We see today those who see themselves as superior in the world can send their ships, tanks, planes etc. for Israel. We can only say words of condemnation. We request that this ends, for the only main topic of this century to be the salvation of Palestine, for a free Palestine, free Al-Aqsa Mosque to be left to the coming generations,” said 37-year-old small business owner, Baris Akbas.
Media reports said Egypt, Morocco, Malaysia, Jordan, Lebanon, Canada and the United States also held rallies in support of Palestine.
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm last Saturday, penetrating deep into the territories occupied by the Israel regime, by carrying out large-scale air, land, and sea strikes.
The group said the operation was a reaction to the recurring desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied al-Quds as well as intensified Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israel responded with intensive air strikes on civilian targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 2,329 Palestinians in Gaza and wounding 9,714 others, according to the territory’s health ministry.
The regime has intensified the siege of Gaza, leaving the city, home to more than 2.3 million Palestinians, without water, electricity, and internet.
