Tokyo, 22 October, /AJMEDIA/
Police in London said nearly 100,000 people marched in the capital Saturday in an event organised by pro-Palestinian groups calling for “an end to the war on Gaza”.
Marchers held signs reading “Freedom for Palestine” and “Stop Bombing Gaza” and “End Israeli Apartheid”. Many waved Palestinian flags and some chanted “5, 6, 7, 8, Israel is a terrorist state” and “Free Palestine”.
Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians who were shot, mutilated or burnt to death on the first day of the raid, according to Israeli officials.
Israel says around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in clashes before its army regained control of the area under attack.
More than 4,300 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed across the Gaza Strip in relentless Israeli bombardments in retaliation for the attacks by the Palestinian Islamist militant group, according to the latest toll from the Hamas health ministry in Gaza.
The march brought traffic at the Marble Arch landmark to a standstill, and police said on X (formerly Twitter) that almost 100,000 had attended. It broke up peacefully close to Downing Street.
“We came to show our support because we can’t stay silent, watch the news, and then do nothing,” Mariam Abdul-Ghani, an 18-year-old student whose family is from the Palestinian territories, told AFP.
David Rosenberg, a member of the Jewish Socialists Group, said he was there “to give solidarity and to disrupt that narrative that says it’s Muslims versus Jews, Palestinians versus Israelis.
“I’m 65 but there’s people here in their 20s and 30s, who have grown up in mainstream Jewish households, who cannot stand what is supposedly done in their name,” he added.
“I do have cousins, family and friends (there)”, said Nivert Tamraz, a 38-year-old marketing consultant, who came with her children so they “understand that sometimes everyone has to stand for humanity and not just shy away.”
“I have a friend whose family is in Gaza, they can’t even get in touch with them, it’s horrible for them, they don’t know if they are dead, if they are alive,” she added.
Other demonstrations took place in Birmingham, central England, Cardiff in Wales and in other European cities.
The first aid trucks arrived in the war-torn Gaza Strip from Egypt on Saturday, bringing humanitarian relief to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave suffering.
