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Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters demand ceasefire at Madrid march

Waving flags and banners, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched through the streets of Madrid on Sunday to demand an immediate ceasefire in the deadly war between Israel and Hamas.

Published: 30 October 2023 09:01 CET
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters demand ceasefire at Madrid march
Protestors wave Palestinian flags and hold signs as they take part in a demonstration in support of the Palestinian people, in Madrid on October 29, 2023. (Photo by JAVIER SORIANO / AFP)

Cries of “Freedom for Palestine” rang out as the crowd snaked through the closed off streets of the Spanish capital.

Around 35,000 people took part according to the central government’s delegation to Madrid, making it one of the biggest rallies in Spain in support of Palestinians since the attack by Hamas on Israel earlier this month.

Israel unleashed a bombing campaign after Hamas gunmen stormed across the Gaza border on October 7th, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 230 others, according to Israeli officials.

Since the attack, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says more than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed — half of them children — by Israel’s relentless retaliatory bombardments.

The protest in Madrid came as Israel’s military late on Friday intensified its air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip.

Nisrin Mashal, a 45-year-old teacher, said she had come to the demonstration because she has family in Gaza as well as in the West Bank.

“I am very worried about my family because I haven’t been able to talk with them in almost two days, it has been two days without receiving any message from them,” she told AFPTV.

Demonstrators held signs that read “Fair peace”, “Flames don’t lie” and “Don’t ignore the Palestinian suffering”. Several people waved Palestinian flags.

“We are sharing from a distance this suffering of the Palestinian people,” said Emilio González, a 50-year-old IT consultant.

“We hope that they can achieve their final goal, the one they always wanted, to have a state of their own,” he added.

Among those who took part was acting Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz of hard-left alliance Sumar who said “everyone is crying out for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza”.

“It is a call that is being made from around the world,” she told reporters at the start of the march.

Several thousand pro-Palestinian protesters took part in another march on Sunday in the port city of Valencia in eastern Spain.

Over 5,000 people protested in Athens on Sunday, a day after protests were held in Britain, France, Switzerland as well as New York.

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ISRAEL

‘Help us free our families’: Relatives of Hamas hostages tell press in Spain

Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, the Islamist group which carried out brutal attacks on Israel on October 7th, have called for access for the Red Cross to treat their relatives during a press conference held in Madrid.

Published: 27 October 2023 09:03 CEST
'Help us free our families': Relatives of Hamas hostages tell press in Spain

“We want to see where the Red Cross is. We know the Red Cross is in Gaza, so we want the world to tell the Red Cross to go and see what is going on with our families,” said Merav Mor Raviv, whose uncle and aunt are detained in Gaza by Hamas along with their daughter and grandson.

“What I’m asking you, what I’m begging you, is that you help us free our families. Imagine that they were your relatives, your children,” Mor Raviv said as she spoke at a media briefing in a Madrid Jewish centre with four other relatives of hostages kidnapped during the Hamas attack.

“Hamas is not letting (the Red Cross) see our families. That’s why we need your help,” said Maayan Segal-Koren, the daughter of one of the hostages.

The hostages’ relatives are undertaking a tour of European cities, a civil society initiative in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they said at the start of the media briefing.

After Paris and Madrid, they will also speak in Brussels, Copenhagen, The Hague, Vienna, Berlin and Rome, they said.

Naama Weinberg, a cousin of hostage Itai, called on the Spanish government to do “whatever they can to talk to the countries that can talk with Hamas”.

The relatives declined to comment on the management of the crisis by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, nor on the possible military offensive on the ground and its possible consequences for hostages.

“We are not the ones that have to give the solutions,” said Mor Raviv when asked about the issue.

More than 1,400 people were killed on Israeli territory on October 7th by Hamas militants, according to Israeli authorities.

In the Gaza Strip, more than 7,000 people, including nearly 3,000 children, have been killed in the Israeli army’s relentless retaliatory bombing, the health ministry of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory said.

The military wing of Hamas estimated on Thursday that “almost 50” Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip had been killed by Israeli strikes, a claim that could not be independently verified.

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