ROME:
Huge figures proved to be pro-Palestinian gatherings in Europe on Saturday, calling for an immediate end to war in Gaza and the release of activists aboard a humanitarian aid on the territory.
The organizers of the demonstration in Rome said hundreds of thousands of people had performed for a fourth consecutive day, after Israel intercepted the flotilla of 45 people seeking to reach Gaza earlier this week.
According to police, some 70,000 people went down to the streets of Barcelona, in one of the many pro-Palestinian demonstrations that take place across Spain.
Elsewhere, several thousand people walked in the center of the Irish capital, Dublin, to mark what the organizers said that it was “two years of genocide” in Gaza.
With Ireland, Spain is one of the most ferocious European criticism of the military offensive of Israel in Gaza, which was launched by the attack on October 7, 2023 of Hamas activists, Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip.
But in Italy, the hard government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was criticized for its inaction at the siege of the Palestinian territory.
On Saturday, Meloni accused the demonstrators of degrading a statue of Pope John Paul II with graffiti in front of the main station of Rome, calling it a “shameful act”.
“They claim to go down the street for peace, but they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and constructor of peace,” she said in a statement.
Protesters in the Italian capital, including families with children, have shouted, “We are all Palestinians”, “Free Palestine” and “Stop the Genocide”, with many Palestinian flags and wearing Keffiyeh checkered in black and white.
“Usually, I do not appreciate large -scale demonstrations, but today, I could not resolve myself to stay at home,” Donato Colucci, a 44 -year -old scout chief, told AFP 150 young people from a secular association.
“I think that countries like Italy, France and Spain have developed a culture of resistance and democratic values more than the others because they have known dictatorship and violence.”
In Barcelona, Marta Carranza, a 65 -year -old pensioner demonstrating with a Palestinian flag on her back, said that Israel’s policy “has been wrong for many years and that we have to go down the street”.
Solidarity
Global Sumud Flotilla, who was intercepted on Wednesday, left Barcelona in early September and had sought to break the Israeli Blocus in Gaza, where the United Nations claim that famine has settled.
About fifty Spaniards on the flotilla have been detained by Israel, the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, said on public television in an interview broadcast on Saturday.
