The drama at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza has caused a wave of indignation in the Middle East, with mass protests in front of consular buildings of Israel, the United States and France. The bombing has caused at least 500 deaths – according to data provided by Hamas that has not been independently verified – when it hit a hospital center that was packed with Gazans seeking refuge after Israel’s order to evacuate the north of the Strip. , in the face of Benjamin Netanyahu’s imminent ground offensive.
After the attack, a steady trickle of people approached the Israeli consulate in Istanbul carrying Turkish and Palestinian flags, shouting “genocidal” slogans. The protesters threw objects and firecrackers at the building, although they were quelled by the police, who fired tear gas. The protest spread to the capital, in front of the Israeli embassy in Ankara and also in Malatya, in the southeast of the country.
There, in the town of Kürecik, the United States has a military installation, which was attacked by a crowd shouting slogans for Palestine. The gendarmerie and the provincial government went to the place to meet with several Islamist organizations that had called for the protest to reduce tensions. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party, the Islamist AKP, declared three days of mourning over the hospital massacre.
In Amman, protesters also tried to storm the Israeli embassy, ??chanting slogans in support of Hamas and calling for the closure of the diplomatic building. The police dispersed the encounter with tear gas. Shortly before the protest, the Jordanian authorities announced the cancellation of the meeting with the American president, Joe Biden, who visited Israel this Wednesday to reiterate his support for Netanyahu.
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen, who has received strong criticism in the Palestinian territories for his alleged lack of authority and his dealings with the Israeli authorities in the West Bank, was scheduled to attend the canceled meeting in Amman. In several cities in this territory, massive protests took place hours before the attack on the Gaza hospital, calling for Mazen’s resignation.
Palestinian security forces fired stun grenades and tear gas to reduce protests. During the morning of Wednesday, thousands of businesses, schools and universities joined a general strike in protest of the Israeli bombings in Gaza. “The strike spread across the West Bank governorates to denounce the current Israeli aggression,” the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. The protesters again chanted slogans against Israel but also against the Palestinian Authority. Palestinian security forces dispersed protests with live fire, wounding at least one person in Tubas. Images from the Al Jazeera network showed an armored vehicle that almost ran over protesters in Ramallah. Clashes with firearms also occurred in Jenin, Nablus, Hebron and Tulkarem. In the West Bank there is also an escalation of attacks by Israeli troops and settlers, which have caused the death of 62 Palestinians.
In countries whose governments openly support the Palestinian group Hamas, the atmosphere is even more tense. In Lebanon, where the Shiite Hezbollah party – an ally of Hamas along with Iran – has great power in the Government and in the streets, it called for a “day of anger” this Wednesday and called on Muslims around the world to come out. the streets to protest against Israel.
“We call on the people of our Arab and Islamic nation to take immediate action in the streets and squares to express extreme anger and put pressure on governments and states,” he said in a statement. “(Today will be) A day of unprecedented anger against the enemy and his crimes and against Biden’s visit to the Zionist entity (Israel) to cover and protect this criminal entity,” the note adds. Last night hundreds of protesters clashed with Lebanese security forces outside the US embassy in Awkar, outside Beirut.
Images on social media show a crowd throwing stones at the building and setting fire to nearby facilities. Demonstrators, waving Palestinian and Hezbollah flags, chanted “death to America” ??and “death to Israel.” Washington responded with a travel alert for its citizens and recommended not visiting Lebanon, while authorizing the voluntary and temporary departure of family members of US diplomatic personnel.
Another crowd gathered and attempted to attack the French embassy in Beirut. During the day on Wednesday, university students and professors went on strike to protest against the attack on the Gaza hospital. Dozens of young people gathered again in front of the United States embassy, ??in a protest that security forces put down with water cannons.
In Iran, protests spread to six cities in the country, although the largest concentration occurred in Tehran’s Palestine Square, where protesters marched to the French embassy. The crowd shouted “death to France and England” and threw eggs and stones at the French diplomatic building. Hours before the attack on the Gaza hospital, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that if the attacks on Palestinian territory continue, “no one will be able to stop the Muslims and the resistance forces.” Anger against Israel spread last night to several North African countries, with protests in Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. Israeli airstrikes have caused at least 3,478 Palestinian deaths and more than 12,000 injuries.
