Almost two weeks after the Hamas attack on Israel, these protests continue as Israel prepares to invade the Gaza Strip by land.
The Gaza Health Ministry has reported that more than 4,000 people have been killed and more than 13,000 injured since the war began in Gaza, most of them women, children and the elderly. According to authorities, more than 1,000 people are believed to be buried under the rubble.
More than 1,400 people have died in Israel, mostly civilians killed during the Hamas invasion. About 200 others were kidnapped.
On Friday, protests broke out after midday prayers in major cities in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank. Palestinians streamed out of mosques and made their way to Israeli military checkpoints in Ramallah, Hebron and Bethlehem, where they threw stones at soldiers and burned tires. Israeli security forces responded by using tear gas and firing weapons.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank reported that 21 people were injured by gunfire from soldiers. Tension was particularly high in Hebron, where Hamas activists called for mass protests. Hebron residents shared leaflets they said were dropped by Israeli military drones across the city, warning that “anyone who speaks out on behalf of Hamas will be persecuted.” There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
In Tulkarem on Friday, gunfire and gunshots were heard from militants during the funerals of 13 people who died in a battle with Israeli troops in the Nur Shams refugee camp.
The 13 days since the outbreak of war have been the deadliest in decades in the West Bank. More than 80 Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers.
Thousands of Egyptians demonstrated in cities across the North African country in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
In a rare move, the Egyptian government approved and even helped organize 27 meeting places for protesters on Friday. Since coming to power in 2013, the government of Abdul Fatah El Sisi has banned large public demonstrations. But pro-Palestinian protests were also registered in non-designated areas.
Hundreds of people gathered in the courtyard of the Al-Azhar Mosque, the world’s main Sunni Muslim religious institution, in central Cairo. “Oh, Al Aqsa, don’t worry, we will redeem you with our soul and blood,” they chanted after Friday noon prayers. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and is located in the disputed Old City of Jerusalem, a site also known by Jews as the Temple Mount and the holiest site in Judaism.
In a march that is not among the government-sanctioned demonstrations, dozens of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square, where they were cordoned off by security forces. Cairo’s central square was the focus of the 2011 uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.
At official protest sites in major Egyptian cities, state television showed demonstrators waving flags and shouting pro-Palestinian slogans.
Although Egypt has operational ties with both Israel and Hamas, the vast majority of Egyptians are sympathetic to the Palestinians and their desire for independence.
Over the past week, El Sisi has publicly criticized Israel and accused Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of trying to liquidate the Palestinian cause by pushing Gazans into Egyptian territory.
Dozens of supporters of the Lebanese group Hezbollah and others demonstrated in a southern suburb of Beirut to demand the lifting of the siege on the Gaza Strip and to express support for Palestinians living there.
“We salute the heroes of Gaza, the people of Gaza, the elderly, men, women and children,” said Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar. Protesters waved Hezbollah, Lebanese and Palestinian flags and burned an American flag.
Clashes broke out between Hezbollah and the Israeli army in cities on the Lebanese-Israeli border. The militant group has threatened escalation if Israel launches a ground invasion in Gaza, while Israel has vowed to retaliate against Lebanon if it does.
The Lebanese government and the international community fear that a ground invasion would spread the war to the country and other places in the region.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a months-long war that ended in 2006 with no clear winner.
In Turkey, where the government declared three days of mourning in solidarity with the victims of the explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, thousands of people protested outside mosques after Friday prayers in Istanbul and the capital Ankara.
In Istanbul, demonstrators affiliated with Islamic groups waved Turkish and Palestinian flags, displayed banners and chanted slogans against Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Some banners read: “Stop the genocide” and “Israel, murderer, leave Palestine.” About a dozen men in red-stained medical coats carried dolls depicting dead babies to protest the hospital explosion, while some of the protesters set fire to an effigy of the Israeli prime minister and an Israeli flag.
Unlike protests earlier in the week, when some demonstrators attempted to break into Israeli diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul and fire fireworks at the Israeli consulate, no violence was reported during Friday’s demonstrations.
Israel withdrew its diplomats from Turkey on Thursday for security reasons, officials said.
Hundreds of protesters braved rainy weather in New York on Friday evening and marched toward U.S. Senator Kristen Gillibrand’s office in Manhattan. Many of them chanted “Now ceasefire” and urged the Democrat – and the rest of the delegation – to condemn Israel’s ongoing bombing of Gaza.
The march was organized by the Democratic Socialists of America, New York City, and a diverse coalition of Muslim, Jewish and other groups. Brooklyn-based Rabbi Miriam Grossman told the crowd that she knows many people who are grieving the loss of family members in the Hamas attack or whose friends and family were taken hostage. In addition, Grossman said he also knows many Palestinians who “live in fear” of losing contact with their loved ones in Gaza.
“The ceasefire is the only way that the Israeli hostages, children and the elderly, can return home,” he said. “The ceasefire is the only way to prevent thousands and thousands more Palestinians from dying in the Gaza Strip, trapped under the rubble of Israeli bombs.”
Police arrested dozens of protesters sitting in the middle of the street, blocking Third Avenue in front of Gillibrand’s office.
At a pro-Israel rally Thursday night where hundreds filled New York’s Times Square to demand the release of the hostages, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer led the crowd in chanting “Bring them home.” Photos of the hostages and the Israeli flag hung on posters.
Schumer said he assured Israelis during a recent visit that the United States was committed to Israel. “We will not abandon you,” he told the crowd. “We will fight alongside you until the Hamas threat is completely eliminated and every hostage is brought home.”
Hundreds of Iraqi protesters gathered at the western Trebil border crossing near Jordan in a demonstration organized by the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Iraqi Shiite political groups and militias backed by Iran.
The pro-Iran coalition also called for a protest in Baghdad near the main gate of the fortified international zone where the US Embassy is located to condemn Israel’s support in the current war against Hamas.
His rival, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraq’s most influential, on Thursday called on Arab countries bordering Israel, particularly Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan, to take part in peaceful demonstrations on its borders.
The demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and chanted “No to Israel” before praying in the presence of clerics.
In recent days, Iran-backed militias have attacked US military bases in Iraq. Iran has warned that an Israeli ground attack in Gaza could trigger an escalation by allied armed groups and a possible regional war.
Pro-Hamas protesters clashed with Jordanian security forces who prevented them from marching toward the West Bank border, and police arrested at least two people.
All roads to the border were closed and several thousand people were allowed to demonstrate in the Naour area, between the capital Amman and the border.
Demonstrators chanted pro-Hamas slogans and condemned the Jordanian government for blocking border access. They also called for the severance of all diplomatic relations with Israel and the expulsion of its ambassador to Jordan.
Thousands of Yemenis demonstrated across the divided and war-torn country in support of the Palestinians.
There were large protests in the capital Sanaa, which is ruled by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, but also in the south, where a secessionist group called the Southern Transitional Council is in control.
In Sanaa, thousands of people waved Palestinian flags and chanted: “With our soul, with our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for you… oh Palestinians.”
The Houthi rebels are bitter enemies of Israel and the United States. Last week, the group’s leader warned the United States against intervening in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, threatening his forces to retaliate by firing drones and rockets.
During times of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the Houthis regularly organize pro-Palestinian marches.
Protesters held signs and shouted slogans in support of Palestinians, demonstrating after prayers outside a mosque in Salé, Morocco.
Protester Lahcen Farhi said he hoped the peaceful rally would help the people of Gaza.
“At least we want the medicine to reach them, or … for the war to stop,” he said, adding that demonstrations in support of Palestinians must take place “without violence and within the framework of the law.”
About 1,000 Muslims marched down a busy street in Kuala Lumpur after Friday prayers, demanding an end to the killing in Gaza.
They gathered outside the US Embassy under Palestinian flags to protest against US support for Israel.
“Israel is nothing but a tyrant and they are cowards for attacking the children and the hospital. “(The Palestinians) are helpless because they are denied all the basic necessities of life to survive, and yet (Israel) complains that they are being harassed by Hamas,” said pensioner Salwa Tamrin.
Many chanted “Death to Israel, God is great” and carried banners calling for an end to the violence. “For me, Palestine is rightly the Palestinians, it is not the place for the Israelis. “They went there and took the land from the Palestinians,” said activist Isyraf Imran.
Malaysia, with a Muslim majority and a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is in Saudi Arabia to attend the ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council summit, warned on Friday that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza could become a regional and global conflict if a solution is not found. Solution.
In the Indonesian capital, demonstrators marched from several mosques to the US Embassy in Jakarta to denounce US support for Israel.
Similar protests also took place in front of the United Nations mission, a few kilometers from the embassy, and at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry complex. Authorities said about 1,000 people took part in rallies in Jakarta after Friday prayers in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.
Protesters marching toward the U.S. Embassy disrupted traffic while chanting “God is great” and “Save the Palestinians.”
More than 100 loud protesters waved Indonesian and Palestinian flags and signs reading “We are proud to support Palestine” along a main Jakarta street that runs past the embassy.
Some burned portraits of US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Around 1,000 police officers were deployed around the embassy, the nearby presidential palace and the UN mission.
Indonesia has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel and there is no Israeli embassy in the country. She is a strong defender of the Palestinians.
President Joko Widodo strongly condemned the Gaza City hospital explosion.
“Now is the time for the world to come together to build global solidarity to fairly resolve the Palestinian issue,” Widodo said from Saudi Arabia, where he was attending the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN for the English acronym ASEAN ) participated Gulf Cooperation Council.
Rome’s Jewish community remembered the 203 people believed to be held by Hamas by setting up a long Shabbat table for them outside the capital’s main synagogue and empty chairs for each of the hostages.
On the back of each chair was a pamphlet with the name, age and photo of each missing person. On the table were candles, wine and loaves of challah, the braided bread typically eaten at Friday dinner. The same leaflets also appeared on billboards elsewhere in central Rome.
According to the Israeli government, Hamas is holding about 203 people after its militants stormed southern Israel on October 7. It is believed that there are at least two Italian-Israelis among them.
The head of Rome’s Jewish community, Victor Fadlun, said the community hoped for as few victims as possible. He explained that the Palestinian people are also suffering and are being taken “hostage” by Hamas. “We must expect a helping hand from them and hope that there is an adequate solution for everyone,” he commented.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators led by the African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling party, protested outside the Israeli embassy in the capital Pretoria.
More than 1,000 protesters brought traffic to a standstill as they marched through the streets. It was the largest demonstration of its kind in South Africa, where the Palestinian cause continues to enjoy strong support.
ANC leaders, including Gauteng provincial party leader Panyaza Lesufi and first deputy general secretary Nomvula Mokonyane, led protesters through the streets of Pretoria. The ANC’s political allies, including the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, also joined the march.
The ANC has expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people, highlighting their long relationship dating back to the era of the white minority government’s apartheid racial policies.
Their youth leader Collen Malatji called on the South African government to ban all Israeli imports and businesses in South Africa.
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Associated Press journalist Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem; Jack Jeffery in Cairo; Abdulrahman Zeyad in Baghdad; Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Türkiye; Ahmed al-Haj in Sana’a, Yemen; Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Niniek Karmini and Andi Jatmiko in Jakarta, Indonesia; Nicole Winfield in Rome; Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg and Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
SPRING: Associated Press