Summary
- Israeli jets have hammered Gaza, hitting 100 sites in 24 hours
- Gaza is still under siege, with Israel blocking supplies of water, electricity and fuel. However, an agreement appears to have made to start letting in aid over the Rafah crossing from Friday
- Global protests are continuing over the Gaza hospital strike which killed 500 people. Israel denies involvement, though Palestine’s UN mission accuses the Israelis of “disinformation” and propaganda about the incident
- Israeli forces kill at least five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society
- Almost 3,480 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 attack inside Israel, which killed more than 1,400 people
Global anti-Israel protests continue
Thousands demonstrated outside the consulates of Israel and the United States in Istanbul late Wednesday. Many waved Palestinian flags and called for revenge against Israel a day after the deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza.
“Humanity is dying” in Gaza, Betul Balcik, a 22-year-old student, told AP, adding that she and friends were protesting “war crimes committed by Israel”.
Large protests also erupted in Tunisia and Morocco, with demonstrators outraged by the blast at the hospital in Gaza.
Protesters gathered outside the Parliament in Rabat chanting “Down with America” and demanding that Morocco reverse its 2020 decision to normalise relations and deepen security ties with Israel.
In Tunis, protesters gathered outside the US and French Embassies to condemn those nations’ support of Israel and demand that their ambassadors be removed from Tunisia.
The demonstrations were among the largest since the Arab Spring more than a decade ago, observers said.
There was also a march by an estimated 10,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Athens, Greece, that was quelled by riot police who fired tear gas. Earlier in the day about 100 people took part in a pro-Israeli gathering.
Demonstrators in Amman, Jordan; the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh in south Lebanon; and Tokyo directed some of their criticism at the U.S. and Biden for their support of Israel.
(AP)
