(Paris) Some 10,000 people demonstrated Monday in Paris against the bombings in Rafah which, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, left at least 45 dead during the night from Sunday to Monday, AFP noted.
A compact crowd gathered at the end of the afternoon a few hundred meters from the Israeli embassy, shouting “We are all children of Gaza”, “Long live the struggle of the Palestinian people”, “Free Gaza”, or even “Gaza, Paris is with you”.
Palestinian flags were waved by the crowd, among which participants wore keffiyehs and signs reading: “We do not kill a child, whether Jewish or Palestinian: stop the bombings, free Palestine” or even “Rafah, Gaza, we are with you”.
“Yesterday, Palestinians were burned alive by Israeli bombing of a refugee camp. We have seen videos of families pulling their loved ones from burning tents. This is one massacre too many,” denounced François Rippe, vice-president of the France Palestine Solidarity Association (AFPS), an organizer of the rally.
PHOTO ABDUL SABOOR, REUTERS
People attend a pro-Palestinian demonstration in front of the Sacré-Coeur basilica in Paris.
“Several thousand” people were present according to him. The Paris police headquarters reported around 10,000 people.
“They set fire to a refugee camp, they burn people and we don’t summon the Israeli ambassador to hold her accountable? ! It’s just unbearable,” Mr. Rippe continued.
A large banner showed drawings of the faces of French President Emmanuel Macron and American President Joe Biden, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, above a slogan “it is humanity they are assassinating”.
Radical left MP Eric Coquerel said he hoped “that the mobilization [allait] end up making the government think. In the words, France’s position is a little fairer than it was. But as long as there are no actions, that means that in reality, you are not doing anything.”
One of the demonstrators, Mehdi Bekkour, whose friend according to him is currently stuck in Gaza, indicated for his part that he had come “as a dad who identifies a lot with what is happening there”. “My friend sent me a message two days ago from Gaza, I don’t even have the courage to listen to him or respond to him. I don’t know what to say to him,” he testified.
The crowd dispersed around 9 p.m. into small groups which formed wild processions in several districts of Paris, from Bastille to République via Opéra.
The police used tear gas on several occasions “to prevent the formation of barricades and attempts at damage,” according to a police source.
PHOTO GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The police used tear gas.
Around 11 p.m., a few hundred demonstrators were still wandering the streets, but without any notable incident, according to this source.
The UN and many countries condemned this Israeli strike on a camp for displaced people in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, and the United States once again asked Israel to “protect civilians”.
The Israeli army, for its part, indicated that it was investigating what the Prime Minister described as a “tragic accident”.