Thousands of protesters took to the streets across the Middle East and North Africa on Tuesday to express their outrage over the deadly Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital.
Spontaneous protests broke out in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, as well as in West Bank cities such as Ramallah.
These demonstrations come in response to the hospital bombing, considered the deadliest attack since the Israeli-Hamas war began on October 7.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 500 people were killed when bombs fell on the central Gaza hospital where displaced Palestinians were seeking refuge.
Since Israel began attacking Gaza from the air on October 7, tens of thousands of residents seeking shelter from the ongoing bombardment have fled to hospitals for help and protection.
The World Health Organization condemned Tuesday’s attack on a hospital and called for immediate protection of civilians and health workers in the Palestinian enclave.
But people across Arab countries have also raised their voices in anger at the devastating scenes that unfolded from Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital.
Al Jazeera correspondent Dorsa Jabbari reported that protests broke out in “at least half a dozen” cities across Iran following the attack on the hospital.
From her vantage point in the capital, Tehran, she said protesters marched from the city’s Palestine Square to the French embassy, where they shouted slogans against the violence.
“There is a feeling that this was something catastrophic,” Jabbari explained. “The Supreme Leader of Iran spoke earlier on Tuesday and said that once the Muslim countries, the Muslim nation and the people become angry, it is very difficult to stop them from expressing their anger.” Exactly that we see on the streets of these countries and certainly in Iran too.”
In Istanbul, freelance journalist Emre Basaran told Al Jazeera the tension was palpable.
“There has always been strong anti-Israel sentiment in Turkey due to the long-standing, decades-long oppression of Palestine and the war against the Palestinian people,” he said. “There is a very pronounced kind of anger towards Israel at the moment. You can just feel it, you can just smell it on the street.”
He explained that Turkish police dispersed the crowd and blocked the area after protesters attempted to enter the Israeli consulate. “There was no way for me to get anywhere near the consulate,” Basaran said.