Rallies Held Across the Globe in Support of Palestinians

Thousands of people in Muslim countries and beyond held demonstrations Friday in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, calling for an end to Israel's blockade and airstrikes in the wake of a brutal incursion into southern Israel by fighters from the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza.

Demonstrators gathered in Iraq at the country's border crossing with Jordan; in locations across Egypt; in Türkiye’s capital Ankara and its most populous city of Istanbul; and in Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea.

A Tuesday night explosion at a Gaza City hospital tending to wounded Palestinians and residents seeking shelter was a prominent theme in some of the demonstrations. The cause of the blast at al-Ahli Hospital has not been determined.

US assessments said the explosion was not caused by an Israeli airstrike, as the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza initially reported. Israel has presented video, audio and other evidence it says proves the blast was caused by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants, who denied responsibility.

The AP has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.

The Israeli siege of the Palestinian territory and airstrikes on it were the focus earlier this week of demonstrations at Egyptian universities, inside a congressional office building in Washington, outside the Israeli Embassy in Bogota and near the US Embassy in Beirut.

Nearly two weeks after the Hamas attack in Israel, such protests continued as Israel prepared for an expected ground invasion of Gaza.

The Gaza Health Ministry has said more than 4,000 people have been killed and over 13,000 have been wounded in Gaza since the war began, most of them women, children and older adults. More than 1,000 people were believed buried under rubble, authorities said.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during Hamas’ deadly incursion. Roughly 200 others were abducted. The Israeli military said Thursday it had notified the families of 203 captives.

EGYPT Thousands of Egyptians demonstrated in cities and towns across the North African country, in an expression of solidarity with Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian government approved and helped organize 27 locations for protesters to gather on Friday.

Hundreds gathered in the courtyard of the Al-Azhar Mosque, the Sunni Muslim world's foremost religious institution, in central Cairo. “Oh Al-Aqsa, do not worry, we will redeem you with our soul and blood,” they chanted in unison after completing Friday’s midday prayer.

The Al-Aqsa mosque is the third-holiest site in Islam situated in Jerusalem's contested Old City, a spot also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, which is the holiest site in Judaism.

Scores of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square where they were cordoned off by security forces. In official demonstration spots located in every major Egyptian city, state TV showed protesters waving flags and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans.

While Egypt has functioning relations with both Israel and Hamas, the overwhelming majority of Egyptians harbor sympathy toward Palestinians and their desire for independence.

Over the past week, Sisi as publicly criticized Israel, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of trying to liquidate the Palestinian cause by pushing Gaza’s inhabitants onto Egyptian territory.

TÜRKIYE In Türkiye, where the government has declared three days of mourning in solidarity with the victims of a blast at a Gaza hospital, thousands of people staged protests outside mosques following Friday prayers in Istanbul and Ankara.

In Istanbul, protesters affiliated with Islamic groups waved Turkish and Palestinian flags, held up placards and chanted slogans denouncing Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“Stop the genocide!” and “Murderer Israel get out of Palestine” some of the placards read. About a dozen men, wearing red-stained doctors’ coats, carried dolls depicting dead babies to protest the hospital blast, while some of the protesters set fire to an effigy of the Israeli prime minister and an Israeli flag.

In contrast to protests earlier this week, when some demonstrators tried to enter Israeli diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul and flung fireworks at the Israeli Consulate, no violence was reported during Friday’s demonstrations.

Israel withdrew its diplomats from Türkiye on Thursday over security concerns, officials said.

IRAQ Hundreds of Iraqi protesters gathered at the western Trebil border crossing near Jordan in a demonstration organized by the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Iran-backed Shiite political groups and militias in Iraq.

The pro-Iran coalition also called for a protest in Baghdad near the main gate of the highly fortified international zone, where the US Embassy is located, to condemn its endorsement of Israel in the ongoing war with Iran-backed Hamas.

Their rival, Iraq’s firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the most influential in the country, issued a call Thursday for Arab nations bordering Israel, notably Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan, to engage in what he called peaceful demonstrations at their borders.

The protesters waved Palestinian flags and chanted “No to Israel” before praying in the presence of religious clerics.

In recent days, Iran-backed militias attacked United States military bases in Iraq. Iran has warned that an Israeli ground incursion into Gaza could spark an escalation from allied armed groups and a possible regional war.

MALAYSIA Some 1,000 Muslims marched along a busy thoroughfare in Kuala Lumpur after Friday prayers, slamming Israel as a bully and calling for an end to the killing in Gaza.

Waving Palestinian flags, the protesters gathered outside the US Embassy that was under heavy security to protest America’s support for Israel.

“Israel is just a big bully, and they are cowards because they are targeting the children, the hospital. Those (Palestinians) are helpless because they are denied all the basic things in life to survive, and yet they (Israel) complained they are being bullied by Hamas,” said retiree Salwa Tamrin.

Chanting “Death to Israel, God is great,” many carried placards calling for an end to violence. “For me Palestine is rightfully Palestinian, it’s not the place for Israelis. They went there and took the land” from the Palestinians, said activist Isyraf Imran.

Predominantly Muslim Malaysia, a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause, doesn’t have diplomatic ties with Israel. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is in Saudi Arabia for the ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council summit, warned Friday that the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Gaza could widen into a regional and world conflict if no solution is found.

“The international community must no longer turn a blind eye to the atrocities. We must put an end to the disproportionate treatment and flagrant hypocrisy” against the Palestinians, he told the summit.

INDONESIA In Indonesia’s capital, demonstrators marched from several mosques to the heavily guarded US Embassy in Jakarta to denounce American support for Israel and demand

Similar protests also took place in front of the United Nations mission, a few kilometers (miles) from the embassy, and in the compound of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Authorities estimated that about 1,000 people participated in the rallies across Jakarta following Friday prayers in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Protesters who marched to the US Embassy halted traffic along the way as they chanted “God is great,” and “Save Palestinians.”

Waving Indonesian and Palestinian flags and signs reading “We are proud to support Palestine,” more than 100 noisy demonstrators gathered along a major street in Jakarta that runs outside the embassy.

Some protesters burned portraits of US President Joe Biden and Netanyahu.

About 1,000 police were deployed around the embassy, the nearby presidential palace and the UN mission.

Indonesia does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, and there is no Israeli embassy in the country. It has long been a strong supporter of the Palestinians.

President Joko Widodo strongly condemned the Gaza City hospital blast, describing it as an attack that violated international humanitarian law.

“Now is the time for the world to stand together to build global solidarity to resolve the Palestinian issue fairly,” Widodo said in a televised statement from Saudi Arabia, where he was attending the ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council summit.

SOUTH KOREA In South Korea's capital, dozens of protesters chanted slogans, waved Palestinian flags and raised anti-Israel banners.

“Free, Free Palestinians!” the protesters shouted, while holding banners that read “We stand with Gaza” and “Stop the massacre by Israel!”

“Please care about human lives. That’s all I am thinking about,” said Elshafei Mohamed, an Egyptian student in Seoul. “If we want to really help, we need to supply Gaza with humanitarian aid at once.”

Eight years after Britain voted for Brexit, businesses still lament economic fallout caused by the country's departure from the European Union, with little prospect of change after this week's election.
"After Brexit, I had to close my second shop to cut my loss," ice-cream parlor owner Diego Alfonso told AFP during an election campaign where both main parties have largely avoided talking about the EU divorce.
Alfonso, 37, set up "Bertotti" with his wife Suzana in 2012, four years before Britain voted in favor of exiting the bloc.
Keir Starmer, whose Labor party is tipped to win the vote on Thursday, has ruled out returning Britain to the European single market, customs union, or bringing back free movement of EU nationals.
Alfonso noted that "you could get things from the European Union very easily" before Brexit.
"Now, everything has so much bureaucracy. You need to fill out so many forms," he added from his remaining store in Hammersmith, a west London suburb.
This has increased the cost of doing business, hitting companies at a time when inflation began to take off as economies emerged from Covid lockdowns and in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which in particular forced up food and energy prices.
One scoop of Bertotti gelato, whose flavors range from lavender to honeycomb and dragon fruit, costs £3.90 ($4.90), up more than 40 percent since before the Brexit vote.
The price surge has hit demand, in a country where the weather is not associated with eating ice cream all year round.
'Is this worth it?'
"There's been a lot of times that we thought we weren't going to make it," said Alfonso, who turned the closed store into a workshop producing the ice cream thanks to ingredients and machinery from Europe.
"Some suppliers from the EU will sometimes not supply you, because it's a bit more work for them as well," he said, adding that the price of imported waffle cones has also soared in recent years.
Added to the picture, Britain's new post-Brexit border controls have caused delivery delays, extra costs and labor shortages.
The UK in a Changing Europe think-tank has said the annual cost of new UK customs declarations could total about £15 billion.
Other consequences of Brexit "red tape" include amended driving regulations and the loss of tens of thousands of young European seasonal workers who were allowed into Britain without work permits.
As a result, Bertotti's workforce has shrunk.
"It hasn't been easy, and there were times when we were like, is this worth it?," said Alfonso.
"We found new ways to make more money. We started supplying restaurants... going to festivals, getting our name out there.
"We're just breaking even but it's nothing compared to what it used to be. I don't want to quit because this is my passion, this is my business... my family," the owner added.
Cost to UK output
Bertotti is far from an isolated case. Rivet & Hide, a supplier of high-end men's clothing, says its turnover with the European Union has fallen by 50 percent since Brexit came into force.
Owner Danny Hodgson has raised prices to cover import taxes, in particular for leather items, as well as for export charges.
If the business community was largely opposed to Brexit, sectors which did support it such as fishing admit that leaving the EU has failed to deliver the economic benefits that were promised.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank and other economists estimate that the long-term cost of Brexit could be about four percent of UK gross domestic product.

Rallies Held Across the Globe in Support of Palestinians