“We support civilians, not Hamas”: demonstrators marched Saturday afternoon in Paris and in several cities in France to express their “solidarity with the people of Gaza” and demand an end to the bombing of the Palestinian territory by the Israeli army. In the Parisian procession of 1,800 people, according to the police headquarters, leaving from Republic to Nation, slogans like “Immediate stop to the bombings” and “Israel is murdering the children of Palestine” were chanted, reports an AFP journalist.
“A life is worth a life”
“Imagining your colleagues working without water, without electricity, amputating without painkillers under bombardment, with armed soldiers entering the healthcare facilities is revolting,” explains Nora (she did not give her name), member of the collective. Caregivers for Gaza. “We support civilians, not Hamas. A life is worth a life,” adds this 30-year-old caregiver.
Member of the leadership of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA), one of the organizations calling for this demonstration, Gaël Quirante believes that “it is not at a time when Israel is intensifying its bombings and its massacre of the people of Gaza that we must (stop) street initiatives.” “On the contrary, we must continue to denounce the leaden screed of the State of Israel” and “the confusions which make some people want to equate support for the people of Gaza with anti-Semitism”, he argues.
“Stop the massacre in Gaza, immediate ceasefire”
In Paris on Saturday afternoon, a rally was also held in front of the Sorbonne University, at the call of the National Collective for a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis. A few dozen people took part, behind a banner reading “Stop the massacre in Gaza, immediate ceasefire,” noted an AFP journalist. In Strasbourg, 400 people marched according to the prefecture, and in Marseille, the demonstrators were around 500, according to the police.
This demonstration in the Marseille city at the call of the collective “Urgence Palestine Marseille” had been banned by the police headquarters “due to serious risks of disturbing public order” in the face of slogans deemed likely to “disturb public order”. ‘import logics of confrontation’. But the administrative justice system finally suspended the order after being referred to the organizers for summary proceedings. Other events also took place in Annecy (200 participants according to the prefecture) as well as in the west, in Nantes, Morlaix and Saint-Brieuc.
The war between Israel and Hamas, which entered its 64th day on Saturday, was triggered by a bloody and unprecedented attack perpetrated by the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel on October 7. According to Israel, 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed during this attack and 240 people kidnapped and taken to Gaza, of whom 138 remain captive. Hamas announced on Saturday that the bombings had left 17,700 dead and 48,780 injured in two months of war.