2023-10-27 19:52:00
Several thousand people demonstrated again on Friday in the occupied West Bank and in several Arab countries in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, bombarded by Israel since the Hamas attack on October 7.
“Liberate Gaza!”, chanted hundreds of Palestinians who took to the streets in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, brandishing flags of Hamas but also of other Palestinian movements, noted an AFP journalist.
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated southern Israel from the Gaza Strip which they control, carrying out a bloody attack against civilians on a scale and violence not seen since the creation of Israel in 1948. More than 1,400 people were killed, the vast majority civilians on the day of the attack, according to authorities.
In retaliation, Israel declared a war to “annihilate” Hamas, relentlessly shelling the besieged territory. More than 7,300 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed, according to the Palestinian Islamist movement’s health ministry.
For Mamdouh Aker, a surgeon from Ramallah, this war is being waged “against all Palestinians, not just against Hamas.”
“Surrender”
At least five thousand people demonstrated in Amman to demand the cancellation of the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel and to denounce the bombings carried out by Israel against the Gaza Strip.
The demonstration began in front of the Great Husseini Mosque, in the heart of the Jordanian capital, in the presence of a large police force, AFP journalists noted.
“No to the Wadi Araba agreement”, the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty signed in 1994, could be read on a banner. “Wadi Araba is not peace, Wadi Araba is surrender,” chanted the demonstrators, many of whom wore Palestinian keffiyehs on their heads or shoulders.
Some also condemned the doubts about the death tolls broadcast by Hamas. “There are tens, if not hundreds, even thousands of victims whose names have been recorded and published,” lambasted a demonstrator, Ismaeil Kirnawi.
In Zarqa, located about twenty kilometers from Amman, around two thousand people took part in a demonstration, and hundreds of others in Mafraq, Tafila and Aqaba.
Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in October 1994, in the middle of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which had been stalled for years.
“Our brothers”
In Lebanon, demonstrations took place in many cities after Friday prayers, notably in the capital Beirut which saw supporters of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah parade, and in Tripoli (north), the country’s second city.
“We are at your side,” said Mohammed Mahmoud who was demonstrating in Tripoli.
In Yemen, a massive demonstration was organized in the capital Sanaa, controlled by Houthi rebels, close to Iran.
Thousands of protesters gathered after the prayer, waving the Palestinian flag and chanting “death to America, death to Israel.”
“The message of the Yemeni people to the Palestinian people and to our brothers (…) in Gaza, in the West Bank and throughout Palestine is that we are with you and by your side. And that if there had not been geographic barriers and obstacles imposed by our enemies (…) our blood would have been shed with yours,” Mohammad Ahmed Muftah, a 26-year-old member of the Houthis, told AFP.
In Iraq, a demonstration brought together around a hundred people in Tahrir Square in Baghdad.
Same thing in Libya, in Tripoli, where demonstrators took over Martyrs’ Square, a vast esplanade in the heart of the Libyan capital. Some waved the Palestinian flag and children trampled an Israeli flag, according to AFP images.
“United against genocide”, can also be read on a sign held at arm’s length by a demonstrator in a square in the capital of Kuwait. “Kuwait is on your side.”
27/10/2023 20:32:55 – Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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