Rally for Palestinians with Thousands in Middle East

On Friday, tens of thousands of people from Muslim nations protested in favour of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and demanded that Israel cease its bombings on the region in retaliation for an attack by Hamas terrorists.

Around the world, including in Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, Morocco, Malaysia, and Indonesia, protesters assembled.

on Egypt, where the military typically prohibits public meetings, thousands of people expressed their outrage on the streets of Cairo and other towns.

The slogan used by protesters, “The people want the fall of Israel,” was a modification of the popular slogan from the Arab Spring, “The people want the fall of the regime.”

Several thousand demonstrators in Bahrain, which has normalised relations with Israel, marched while screaming “No to normalisation!”

After Israel launched its campaign in Gaza on October 7 in response to a surprise Hamas onslaught that left at least 1,400 people dead, the most of them civilians, protests broke out two weeks later.

According to the health ministry administered by Hamas, more than 4,100 Palestinians have died as a result of continued Israeli strikes.

While the majority of Muslim states have demanded an immediate cease-fire, several Western governments have backed Israel’s military action.

During a brief visit to Tel Aviv this week, President Joe Biden promised that the United States would continue to guarantee Israel’s superior military advantage as it has done for years. He also stated that the United States will give Israel unshakable support when it responds militarily to the Hamas offensive.

Biden pushed Congress to approve more than $100 billion in aid for Israel, the Ukraine, and Taiwan in a speech delivered during prime time on Thursday night.

He claimed that opposing Hamas and Russian President Vladimir Putin, both of whom are attempting to “annihilate a neighbouring democracy,” was a question of national security for the United States.

Palestinians in Ramallah, in the West Bank, voiced their displeasure with Biden and his administration’s backing for Israel.

According to Hanin, a writer aged 29 who requested that his last name not be used, Biden is “not even neutral about the war.”

He could easily put an end to everything, but he doesn’t desire peace. The two men in charge of everything that is happening in this place are [Biden] and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. They are in charge of everything that occurs here.

The 20-year-old Hamza, who also preferred that his last name not be revealed, claimed that he thought Biden’s comments demonstrated that the president views Palestinians as terrorists.

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“We do not engage in terrorism. They’re attempting to embellish the attack. All we want is to be freed from the soldiers of the occupation, he told VOA.

Following Friday’s midday prayers, protests erupted in the major West Bank cities. Israeli security officers used tear gas and live rounds in response to protesters throwing stones and torching tyres at their soldiers.

The leaders of Muslim nations are also expressing the growing rage in those nations.

Israel’s attacks on Gaza, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, constitute genocide.

Erdogan said on X, formerly known as Twitter, “I reiterate my call for the Israeli leadership to never broaden the scope of its attacks on civilians and to immediately cease its operations amounting to genocide.”

Turkey first denounced and urged moderation after the Hamas attack on Israel and the civilian deaths there.

Ankara, which has diplomatic ties with Israel, has hardened its attitude as the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has worsened.

According to his administration, Erdogan called Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Friday and lamented that “the savagery towards Palestinian lands was deepening.”

‘Building rage’

Earlier this week, el-Sissi informed visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that although Egypt “unequivocally condemns” the attacks by Hamas on Israeli targets, the terrorists were spurred on by the difficult circumstances that Palestinians are forced to live in.

“We need to understand that this is the result of accumulated fury and hatred over four decades, where the Palestinians had no hope to find a solution,” he stated.

In light of mounting concerns about a wider Middle East conflict, Egypt is hosting a meeting on the Gaza problem this coming Saturday. Expectations have been dimmed by the absence of the U.S. and Israel’s top representatives from the Cairo Peace Summit, which will bring together representatives from Arab and European nations.

The worst may yet be ahead, according to Jordan’s foreign minister, who also predicted that the battle would have “catastrophic repercussions.”

Several thousand protestors demonstrated their solidarity for Palestinians in Amman, the capital of Jordan, where hundreds more gathered close to the Israeli embassy.

This report was compiled with assistance from Yan Boechat, reporting for VOA from Ramallah. The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse all contributed some information.