Thousands of protesters have marched in the French capital to show solidarity with the people in the besieged Gaza Strip, calling the Israeli attacks on helpless people a “genocide” and demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
Gathering at the Republic Square in Paris, the crowd held a march toward the Bastille Square chanting pro-Palestinian slogans.
The anti-Israel protested demanded a stop to the forced displacement of Gaza’s residents, arms transfers to Israel, and a lifting of the blockade of the besieged enclave.
“When they starve and thirst a people, when there are no longer functioning hospitals in the Gaza Strip, it is genocide, when they bomb and destroy houses and schools, it is genocide and that is what we are fighting against today,” Omar Alsoumi, a protester said.
“Have for yourself the glory of protest, against the anonymous silence of the murders who, hiding one behind the other, kill, kill, and kill again, thinking that in this way they will solve the problems,” Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of La France Insoumise (LFI) said addressing the rally.
Footage shows demonstrators burning flares in the colors of Palestine and waving Palestinian flags as they marched with placards reading “Stop arms deliveries to Israel”, “Freedom for all prisoners” and “Stop the massacres / Their lives are worth the lives of yours / Stop the genocide”, among other slogans.
The protest was called by the National Collective for a Just and Lasting Peace between Palestinians and Israelis and other collectives such as Urgence Palestine. The march started at Place de la Republique and ended at Place de la Bastille.
A number of officials such as Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of LFI, Marin Tondelier, leader of Europe Ecology Greens (EELV), and Hala Abu Hassira, Palestinian Ambassador to France, were among the protesters.
“There have been a fair amount of protests since October 7 and it is important to continue,” said protester Skander Amor.
French protesters also rallied in Toulouse and Nice in support of Palestine.
Similar demos were held across several other countries across the Green Continent.
Demonstrators gathered in the central Mariahilf square in the Austrian capital Vienna, protesting to the Israeli regime forces deadly attacks that resumed after the end of a humanitarian pause last week.
In Spain, pro-Palestine rallies were held in Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, Granada and Madrid.
Demonstrators also rallied in Milan, Italy and Malta’s capital, Valetta, to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza.
In other European countries, including in the UK and Germany, demonstrators marched to show solidarity with the hapless people in the besieged Gaza Strip,
Israeli regime forces launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements began Operation al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the occupant regime forces’ decades-long campaign of intimidation and massacre of Palestinians and taking their land.
Approximately, 15,500 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, in Israeli regime forces relentless airstrikes, with many more still missing and unaccounted for and feared to be dead under the rubble.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been wounded since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on the coastal territory.
