The more than 50,000 Palestinians that have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023 were commemorated Thursday in simultaneous protests in France, Belgium and Switzerland.
The coordinated action, led by a pro-Palestinian group of health care workers, took place across 41 cities in France and two cities each in Belgium and Switzerland.
In Paris, the protesters gathered at Trocadero square near the Eiffel Tower, where they read out the names of 1,600 Palestinians killed in Gaza.
Speaking to Anadolu, Rania, a Palestinian student, said they took to the streets to mark the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, or “Catastrophe,” referring to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the establishment of the State of Israel.
Palestinians had to flee their homes in 1948, she recalled.
In 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians were displaced from their towns and villages.
The Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 53,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.