{"id":279105,"date":"2025-10-05T08:33:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T08:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/279105\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T08:33:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T08:33:17","slug":"hundreds-of-thousands-in-southern-europe-protest-israels-campaign-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/279105\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of thousands in southern Europe protest Israel’s campaign in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) \u2014 Hundreds of thousands of Italians and Spaniards marched in Rome, Barcelona and Madrid on Saturday against Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza<\/a> in a show of growing international anger over the two-year-old war.<\/p>\n

The protests in almost every major Spanish city had been planned for weeks, while the demonstration in Rome followed widespread anger after the Israeli interception of a humanitarian aid flotilla<\/a> that had set sail from Barcelona in a bid to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n

The protests across southern Europe come as Hamas said that it has accepted some elements of a plan<\/a> laid out by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the war, which has left Gaza\u2019s largest city in famine<\/a> and stirred accusations of genocide<\/a> against Israel.<\/p>\n

Rome\u2019s police said that 250,000 people turned out, while organizers said that 1 million attended, for a second straight day of Italian demonstrations. Italy already saw more than 2 million people<\/a> rally on Friday in a one-day general strike to support the Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

In Spain, officials said that 100,000 people marched in Madrid and another 70,000 filled downtown Barcelona. Organizers of the Madrid march raised attendance to 400,000, while organizers in Barcelona said that 300,000 took part.<\/p>\n

While the protests were peaceful, hours after the official Barcelona demonstration ended, there were clashes between police and several hundred people, some of whom vandalized stores and caused scenes of panic among shoppers and bystanders.<\/p>\n

Spaniards were also called by activists to march in Valencia, Sevilla, Malaga and other cities.<\/p>\n

Smaller rallies took place in Paris, Lisbon, Athens and Skopje, North Macedonia, and in London and Manchester<\/a>, England.<\/p>\n

Protests in Rome criticize Meloni<\/p>\n

The protest in Rome that followed a route by the Colosseum was organized by three Palestinian organizations along with local unions and students.<\/p>\n

At Piazza San Giovanni, protesters chanted and applauded the name of Francesca Albanese, an Italian who is the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories and a vocal critic of Israel.<\/p>\n

Although the organizers had requested that only Palestinian flags be carried, there were some banners praising the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas. One read, \u201cOctober 7, Day of Palestinian Resistance,\u201d a reference to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel that sparked the war, while another large flag read \u201cDeath, death to the IDF,\u201d a reference to the Israel Defense Forces. A group also chanted the same slogan, state broadcaster RAI reported.<\/p>\n

Opposition lawmaker Riccardo Magi, secretary of the center-left Piu Europa (more Europe) party, who was among the marchers, took Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni\u2019s government to task for its refusal to recognize a Palestinian state, following the example of Spain, France, the U.K. and some other Western countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeloni cannot continue with this obscene victimhood: these are spontaneous demonstrations against the inaction and complicity of her government. She must acknowledge this and begin working diplomatically for peace,\u201d Magi told Italian media.<\/p>\n

Big rally in Barcelona <\/p>\n

Spain has seen an upsurge of support for Palestinians<\/a> in recent weeks while its left-wing government intensifies diplomatic efforts<\/a> against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s far-right government. Protests against the presence of an Israeli-owned cycling team repeatedly disrupted the Spanish Vuelta<\/a> last month, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez called the destruction in Gaza a \u201cgenocide\u201d<\/a> and asked for the ban of all Israeli teams from international sporting events.<\/p>\n

The day of protests kicked off in Barcelona as people packed the wide Passeig de Gracia, the city\u2019s main central boulevard, before noon. Many families turned out along with people of all ages, carrying Palestinian flags. Hand-held signs bore messages like \u201cGaza hurts me,\u201d \u201cStop the Genocide,\u201d and \u201cHands off the flotilla.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 40 Spaniards, including a former Barcelona mayor, were among the 450 activists that Israel removed from the flotilla\u2019s boats this week.<\/p>\n

While the protests will likely not sway Israel\u2019s government, protesters hope they could inspire other demonstrations and encourage European leaders to take a harder line against Israel.<\/p>\n

Mar\u00eda Jes\u00fas Parra, 63, waved a Palestinian flag after making an hourlong trip from another town to Barcelona. She wants the European Union to act against what she described as the horrors she watches on TV news.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow is it possible that we are witnessing a genocide happening live after what we (as Europe) experienced in the 1940s?\u201d Parra said. \u201cNow nobody can say they didn\u2019t know what was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

People in Madrid marched behind banners that read \u201cShame\u201d and \u201cRacist War, Free Palestine,\u201d while chanting \u201cNetanyahu (is a) Killer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greek police believe a bigger gathering and march will take place Sunday to coincide with a pro-Israeli one. The two protests are separated by some 3 kilometers (2 miles) and police will be on hand to prevent the pro-Palestinian march to the Israeli Embassy, as as happened on previous occasions.<\/p>\n

The war in Gaza started after Hamas\u2019 attack in October 2023, which left around 1,200 people dead, while 251 others were taken hostage. Israel\u2019s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has so far killed more than 67,000 people and wounded nearly 170,000 others, according to Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. U.N. agencies and many independent experts view its figures as the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Paolo Santalucia reported from Rome. Demetris Nellas contributed to this report from Athens, Greece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BARCELONA, Spain (AP) \u2014 Hundreds of thousands of Italians and Spaniards marched in Rome, Barcelona and Madrid on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":279106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[97,1386,372,69,16817,74175,4526,57,37440,4527,99,3462,373,3493,5036,144272,3463,50,9598,8960,111289,402,365,144271,8958,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-279105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-barcelona","10":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-eurocopa-2024","13":"tag-francesca-albanese","14":"tag-gaza-strip","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-giorgia-meloni","17":"tag-hamas","18":"tag-israel","19":"tag-israel-government","20":"tag-israel-hamas-war","21":"tag-italy-government","22":"tag-madrid","23":"tag-mara-jess-parra","24":"tag-mideast-wars","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-palestinian-territories-government","27":"tag-pedro-sanchez","28":"tag-portugal-government","29":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","30":"tag-religion","31":"tag-riccardo-magi","32":"tag-spain-government","33":"tag-world","34":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115320639095790196","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}