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Pro-Palestinian Protesters Demand Gaza Ceasefire in European Marches

Protesters gather with placards and flags during the 'London Rally For Palestine' in Trafalgar Square, central London on November 4, 2023, calling for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Protesters gather with placards and flags during the 'London Rally For Palestine' in Trafalgar Square, central London on November 4, 2023, calling for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Pro-Palestinian Protesters Demand Gaza Ceasefire in European Marches

Protesters gather with placards and flags during the 'London Rally For Palestine' in Trafalgar Square, central London on November 4, 2023, calling for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Protesters gather with placards and flags during the 'London Rally For Palestine' in Trafalgar Square, central London on November 4, 2023, calling for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through London, Berlin and Paris on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza after a week when Israel's military intensified their assault against Hamas.

In London, television footage showed large crowds holding sit-down protests blocking Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus, before marching to and gathering in Trafalgar Square.

Protesters held "Freedom for Palestine" placards and chanted "ceasefire now" and "in our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians."

London's Metropolitan Police said it had made three arrests. In a post on X, police said one person was arrested for displaying a placard that could incite hate, contrary to terrorism legislation.

Britain has supported Israel's right to defend itself after the Hamas militant group killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostage in an Oct. 7 assault in southern Israel.

Echoing Washington's stance, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government has stopped short of calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and instead advocated humanitarian pauses to allow aid to reach people in need.

Thousands of protesters marched in central Paris to call for a ceasefire with placards reading "Stop the cycle of violence" and "To do nothing, to say nothing is to be complicit."

In Berlin, demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. One woman marched with her arm in the air, her hand covered in fake blood.

Western governments have offered support to Israel after the Oct. 7 attacks but there has been growing concern over civilian casualties that have soared under Israel's bombardment that has seen thousands killed, wounded and displaced in Gaza.

Palestinians reported a deadly Israeli strike on a UN-run school in northern Gaza serving as a shelter on Saturday.

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North Korea is Again Flying Balloons Likely Carrying Trash toward South Korea

The tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns between the two Koreas are inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the rival threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences - The AP 
The tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns between the two Koreas are inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the rival threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences - The AP 
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North Korea is Again Flying Balloons Likely Carrying Trash toward South Korea

The tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns between the two Koreas are inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the rival threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences - The AP 
The tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns between the two Koreas are inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the rival threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences - The AP 

North Korea again launched a raft of balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea on Wednesday, Seoul officials said, the 10th such balloon incident in less than two months following South Korea's resumption of frontline propaganda broadcasts.

The tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns between the two Koreas are inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the rival threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences, The AP reported.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the North Korean balloons are flying north of Seoul on Wednesday morning after crossing the border. It urged the South Korean people to be alert for falling objects.

Since late May, North Korea has floated more than 2,000 rubbish-carrying balloons on a series of launch events, dropping waste paper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts and even manure on South Korea. North Korea has argued its balloon campaigns are a response to South Korean activists scattering political leaflets across the border via their own balloons.

Experts say North Korea considers South Korean civilian leafleting activities a major threat to its efforts to crack down on the inflow of foreign news. In furious responses to past South Korean leafletting, North Korea destroyed an empty South Korean-built liaison office in its territory in 2020 and fired at incoming balloons in 2014.

The North’s balloon flying hasn’t caused major damages in South Korea. But it has caused security jitters among many people who think North Korea could use balloons to drop more hazardous materials like chemical and biological agents next time.

South Korea said Sunday it was bolstering its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts from its loudspeakers along the land border because North Korea was continuing launches of trash-carrying balloons.

The latest South Korean broadcasts included K-pop songs and news on BTS member Jin’s torch-bearing ahead of the Paris Olympics and the recent defection of a senior North Korean diplomat. The broadcasts also called the mine-planting works by North Korean soldiers at the border “hellish, slave-like lives,” according to South Korean media.

Experts say South Korean propaganda broadcasts can demoralize frontline North Korean troops and residents, posing a blow to the North’s efforts to limit access to outside news for its 26 million people. South Korean officials have previously said broadcasts from their loudspeakers can travel about 10 kilometers (6 miles) during the day and 24 kilometers (15 miles) at night.