The Israeli army is stepping up its offensive on the Gaza Strip, while tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in France and the US on Saturday, demanding a ceasefire.
Despite a €135 fine for taking part, protesters joined a mass rally in Paris.
The action follows a bombing campaign by Israel after Hamas militants stormed the Gaza Strip on 7 October.
Israel claims 1,400 dead, while Israeli bombing has taken the lives of 7,703 people, mostly civilians, including more than 3,500 children.
Among the protesters in Paris were officials such as Elsa Toure, the deputy mayor of Corbeil-Essonnes, who said the following:
The need for a ceasefire is urgent, to stop killing women, children and men.
Demonstrator Samia Orosemane carried a sign with the words: “Where has our humanity gone?”
It is not right that a ceasefire has not been called, that thousands of civilians are dying and no one is saying anything.
New York City was also filled with demonstrators. A rally was held in Brooklyn, New York’s largest borough, to express their outrage at the Israeli bombing of Gaza. New York, with its multiculturalism, home to 1.6 to two million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Muslims, has been rocked by demonstrations, rallies and wakes in support of Palestinians and Israel for the past three weeks.
Hundreds of detainees in both France and the U.S. turned out towards the end of the day.
