Thousands join pro-Palestinian marches in London, Berlin

Several thousand pro-Palestinian protesters marched through central London and Berlin on Saturday, calling for an end to Israeli strikes on Gaza, three years after Hamas's October 7 attack.

Marchers carried placards reading "End the genocide" and "Free Palestine" as they made their way along the route near the British parliament.

"We are here today to mark three years of the ongoing genocide in Gaza," Aimee Shalan, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told AFP.

She said Western sanctions over settler violence did not go far enough, calling for "full sanctions on Israel".

A ceasefire began a year ago and although Israel has reduced its level of attacks it has kept striking Gaza on a near-daily basis. 

Strikes have killed some 1,450 Palestinians since the ceasefire, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Police said they had made "several arrests" including a man and a woman with placards supporting the organisation Palestine Action, banned under UK law.

Recent graduate Hibo Hassan, 23, said she was there to show her solidarity.

"Although it is happening in the Middle East, it affects us here now," she said.

"It's extremely dystopian and that is something we should be all scared about," she added.

Another protester, a 32-year-old Kosovar immigrant who gave his name as Kobe, said his own experience of war made him want to "stand up today and not let history repeat" itself.

A small counter-demonstration was organised by Stop The Hate UK, a Jewish-led, pro-Israel campaign group.

Ahead of the protest, organised by the Palestine Coalition, London's Metropolitan Police said it would be using powers under public order legislation to require anyone wearing a face covering to deliberately hide their identity to remove it.

"We will take a zero-tolerance approach to hate crime and other offending," said senior Met officer Carl Galvin.

 

- 'Really terrible' -

 

In Berlin, a similar march organised by the group United for Palestine drew around 3,500 people as it set off from a square between the chancellery and parliament, according to police. 

Many called out Germany's arms exports to Israel, carrying banners and placards condemning Berlin's military support. 

For decades, Germany has seen resolute support for Israel as a fundamental duty largely because of Nazi Germany's responsibility for the genocide of millions of European Jews during the Holocaust.

"I find it really terrible that Germany finds it so difficult to criticise Israel," a student told AFP, requesting not to be named. 

The protests in London and Berlin came three days after the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack.

The attack was the deadliest in Israel's history, resulting in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also dragged 251 hostages into Gaza, 44 of them already dead.

In response, Israel launched a military offensive that has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 74,200 people, according to Gaza's health ministry.

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