Protesters in US, UK call for immediate truce in Gaza

KABUL (Pajhwok): Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in United Sates and United Kingdom calling for immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Palestine, media reports said on Sunday.

The demonstrators in Washington, DC on Saturday directed their anger towards US President Joe Biden, accusing him of enabling genocide against Palestinians, Al-Jazeera reported.

The protesters chanted: “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide; we charge you with genocide.”

United Nations experts have warned of a growing risk of genocide in Gaza amid Israel’s relentless bombardment of the enclave, which was launched in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israeli communities.

The protests are “a testament of just how much more support has grown around the Palestinian solidarity movement and that people really want to see change come,” said Iman Abid-Thompson, director of advocacy at the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, one of the groups organizing the Washington D.C. protest, in an interview with CNN.

Over 450 organizations have endorsed the march, says the International People’s Assembly. In addition to an “immediate ceasefire,” the protesters are also calling for an end to US military aid to Israel and an end to the blockade on Gaza, according to CNN report.

Tens of thousands of protesters have joined rallies and sit-ins in dozens of towns and cities across the UK to call for an end to Israeli attacks in Gaza, BBC reported.

The Metropolitan Police estimate there were 30,000 in central London alone.

At Edinburgh and Glasgow rail stations, and at London’s Charing Cross, people sat on the floor stopping travellers from catching trains, police said.

In London, local protests took place before many thousands of demonstrators packed into Trafalgar Square for a rally, led by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.

Protesters brought traffic to a temporary standstill in London’s Oxford Street with a sit-in.

Iman Abid-Thompson, director of advocacy at the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, one of the groups organizing the Washington D.C. protest said to CNN: “The protests are “a testament of just how much more support has grown around the Palestinian solidarity movement and that people really want to see change come”.

According to Anadolu News Agency, the death toll from Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip has risen to 9,500, with well over half of them women and children, the government media office in the Gaza Strip announced on Saturday.

“The death toll in result of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7 is 9,500, including 3,900 children and 2,509 women,” Salama Marouf, the head of the media office, told a press conference.

hz/sa

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