Moroccan Protesters Decry Gaza 'Genocide'

Palestinians stand among rubble following Israeli strikes on a residential building, in Gaza City, October 9, 2023. (Reuters)
Palestinians stand among rubble following Israeli strikes on a residential building, in Gaza City, October 9, 2023. (Reuters)
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Moroccan Protesters Decry Gaza 'Genocide'

Palestinians stand among rubble following Israeli strikes on a residential building, in Gaza City, October 9, 2023. (Reuters)
Palestinians stand among rubble following Israeli strikes on a residential building, in Gaza City, October 9, 2023. (Reuters)

Several thousand Moroccans demonstrated on Sunday in Rabat to condemn "genocide" in the Gaza Strip and demand the end of diplomatic relations with Israel, AFP journalists reported.

They marched through the city behind a huge banner denouncing "the Holocaust in Gaza" and calling for ties with Israel to be repealed.

Morocco and Israel established full relations in 2020 in exchange for the United States recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

On Sunday, demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyeh scarves marched against "war crimes and genocide" in Gaza, and calling for an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

The demonstration was organized by the "National Action Group for Palestine".

Protester Saoussane, 41, said she was there "to express support for the Palestinian people, and for the children they are killing who have nothing to do with Hamas".

"How can we talk about collateral damage with 17,000 dead?" she asked. "It is genocide -- it is not even a war any more."

According the Hamas health ministry in Gaza, 17,997 people have been killed by Israel's relentless air strikes and ground invasion, mostly women and children.

In retaliation for Hamas's unprecedented attack on October 7 in the south of Israel, Israel's military launched a campaign to "annihilate" Hamas.

Since the war began, huge demonstrations across Morocco have called for an end to the North African country's diplomatic normalization with Israel.

"Gaza, under siege for 17 years, is experiencing the worst genocide with the blessing of the United Nations which is unable to take firm decisions to stop it, with the participation of the United States and Western countries", said another demonstrator, Halima Chouika.

At the end of November, Morocco's King Mohammed VI condemned Israel's "flagrant violation of international law and humanitarian values" in its reprisals against Hamas.

He said he rejected Israel's "policy of collective punishment, forced displacement and any attempt to impose new facts on the ground", in a message addressed to the United Nations.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”