Thousands of people demonstrated in Baghdad and Tehran on Friday in support of Palestinians, on the seventh day of a bloody war between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
“No to the occupation! No to America!” shouted the demonstrators in Tahrir Square, the heart of the Iraqi capital.
They gathered at Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr’s call “in support of Gaza” and against Israel, waving Palestinian and Iraqi flags and a huge Israeli flag was placed on the ground for protesters to trample, according to an AFP photographer.
After Hamas’s bloody attack on October 7, Israel imposed a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip, which had been under a land, air and sea blockade for more than 15 years.
According to local authorities, around 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas attack and more than 1,500 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli response.
The demonstration in Baghdad “aims to denounce what is happening in occupied Palestine, the bloodshed and violation of rights,” Abou Kayan, an organizer and member of the Sadrist movement, told AFP.
Moqtada Sadr is in the political opposition, but the movement in support of Gaza benefits from the explicit support of the Iraqi government.
The latter, supported by a parliamentary majority of parties close to Iran, an ally of Hamas, estimated that the attack launched on Saturday by the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel was the “natural result of the systematic repression” that “The Palestinians are “subjugated” by the Zionist occupying power.”
“Down with America”
In Tehran, demonstrators waved Iranian, Palestinian and Lebanese Hezbollah flags. They held banners reading “Down with America” and “Down with Israel,” an AFP journalist noted. Similar rallies took place in other cities in Iran, where American and Israeli flags were burned.
Iran, a country whose population is predominantly Shiite Muslims but not Arabs, provides financial and military support to the Palestinian Hamas. Israel is their common arch-enemy, and the Palestinian movement wants the destruction of the Israeli state.
In France, where President Emmanuel Macron called on Israel on Thursday for a “strong” but “fair” response to the Hamas attack, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin ordered a ban on “pro-Palestinian demonstrations because they are likely to cause disruption to public order.” “. .
On October 7, hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel by vehicle, air and sea, killing civilians on the streets, in their homes or at rave parties, and spreading terror under a barrage of rockets.
During this offensive, they kidnapped several dozen Israeli hostages, foreign and binational, whom Hamas threatened with execution. Israeli authorities have identified around 150 hostages.
Israel responded by declaring war to destroy the ability of Hamas, a movement designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. It bombed the Gaza Strip and stationed tens of thousands of troops around the Palestinian enclave and on the northern border with Lebanon.
At least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel since hostilities began. According to local authorities, more than 1,500 people were killed on the Palestinian side, including many civilians.