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A Global Day of Protests Draws Thousands in London and Other Cities in Pro-Palestinian Marches

Pro-Palestinian activists and supporters wave flags and carry placards during a National March for Palestine in central London on January 13, 2024. (AFP)
Pro-Palestinian activists and supporters wave flags and carry placards during a National March for Palestine in central London on January 13, 2024. (AFP)
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A Global Day of Protests Draws Thousands in London and Other Cities in Pro-Palestinian Marches

Pro-Palestinian activists and supporters wave flags and carry placards during a National March for Palestine in central London on January 13, 2024. (AFP)
Pro-Palestinian activists and supporters wave flags and carry placards during a National March for Palestine in central London on January 13, 2024. (AFP)

Children joined thousands of other demonstrators making their way through central London for a pro-Palestinian march on Saturday, part of a global day of action against the longest and deadliest war between Israel and Palestinians in 75 years.

The plight of children in the Gaza Strip after nearly 100 days of the Israel-Hamas was the focus of the latest London march, symbolized by the appearance of Little Amal, a 3.5-meter (11.5-foot) puppet originally meant to highlight the suffering of Syrian refugees.

The puppet had become a human rights emblem during an 8,000-kilometer (4,970-mile) journey from the Turkish-Syrian border to Manchester in July 2001.

Nearly two-thirds of the 23,843 people killed during Israel’s campaign in Gaza have been women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Israel declared war in response to Hamas’ unprecedented cross-border attack on Oct. 7 in which the militant group killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 others hostage. It was the deadliest attack in Israel’s history and the deadliest for Jews since the Holocaust.

March organizers said the Palestinian children will accompany Little Amal through the streets of central London.

“On Saturday Amal walks for those most vulnerable and for their bravery and resilience,“ said Amir Nizar Zuabi, artistic director of The Walk Productions. “Amal is a child and a refugee and today in Gaza childhood is under attack, with an unfathomable number of children killed. Childhood itself is being targeted. That’s why we walk.”

London’s Metropolitan Police force said some 1,700 officers will be on duty for the march, including many from outside the capital.

Home Secretary James Cleverly said he had been briefed by police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley on plans to “ensure order and safety” during the protest.

“I back them to use their powers to manage the protest and crack down on any criminality,” Cleverly said.

A number of conditions were placed for the march, including a directive that no participant in the protest shall venture near the Israeli Embassy.

A pro-Israel rally is set to take place in London on Sunday.

The London march was one of several others being held in European cities including Paris, Rome, Milan, and Dublin where thousands also marched along the Irish capital's main thoroughfare to protest Israel’s military operations in the Palestinian enclave.

Protesters waved Palestinian flags, held placards critical of the Irish, US and Israeli governments and chanted, “Free, free Palestine.″

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Rescue Efforts from Myanmar's Deadly Earthquake Wind Down as Death Toll Exceeds 3,500

A damaged lying Buddhist statue is pictured inside a pagoda following a strong earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, April 3, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A damaged lying Buddhist statue is pictured inside a pagoda following a strong earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, April 3, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
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Rescue Efforts from Myanmar's Deadly Earthquake Wind Down as Death Toll Exceeds 3,500

A damaged lying Buddhist statue is pictured inside a pagoda following a strong earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, April 3, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A damaged lying Buddhist statue is pictured inside a pagoda following a strong earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, April 3, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

Long-shot efforts to find survivors from Myanmar’s devastating March 28 earthquake were winding down Monday, as rescue efforts were supplanted by increasing relief and recovery activity, with the death toll from the disaster surpassing 3,500 and still climbing.

In the capital, Naypyitaw, people cleared debris and collected wood from their damaged houses under drizzling rain, and soldiers removed wreckage at some Buddhist monasteries, The Associated Press said.

Myanmar Fire Services Department said Monday that rescue teams had recovered 10 bodies from the rubble of a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second biggest city.

It said international rescuers from Singapore, Malaysia and India had returned to their countries after their work to find survivors was considered completed. The number of rescue teams operating in the residential areas of Naypyitaw has been steadily decreasing.

The 7.7 magnitude quake hit a wide swath of the country, causing significant damage to six regions and states. The earthquake left many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaged roads and bridges, making the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.

Heavy rains and winds disrupted rescue and relief operations on Saturday night and added to the misery of the homeless forced to sleep in the open. The weather forecast for this week said scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible across the country.

Myanmar’s military government and its battlefield opponents, meanwhile, have been trading accusations over alleged violations of ceasefire declarations each had declared to ease earthquake relief efforts.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army’s 2021 takeover ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, which led to nationwide peaceful protests that escalated into armed resistance and what now amounts to civil war.

Although the military government and its armed opponents declared unilateral ceasefires for a temporary period, reports of continued fighting are widespread, with the army coming in for special attention for continuing aerial bombing, according to independent Myanmar media and eyewitnesses.

Independent confirmation of fighting is difficult because of the remoteness of the areas in which much of it takes place and restrictions on journalists.

The Three Brotherhood Alliance, a trio of powerful ethnic minority guerrilla armies, declared a unilateral temporary ceasefire on April 1, following an earlier declaration by the opposition National Unity Government, or NUG.

The NUG, which leads the pro-democracy resistance, said its armed wing, the People’s Defense Force, would cease offensive actions for two weeks.

On Wednesday night, the army announced a similar unilateral ceasefire, as did another ethnic minority group among its foes, the Kachin Independence Organization.

All sides reserved the right to act in self-defense.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, a member of the powerful Three Brotherhood Alliance, charged in a Sunday statement on the Telegram messaging platform that the military conducted airstrikes, including dropping toxic gas bombs, on villages the guerrilla group occupied last year in the northern part of Shan state.

Another member of the alliance, the Arakan Army, fighting in the western state of Rakhine, said Saturday night that the military continued to launch daily counterattacks, aerial bombardments, shelling and naval attacks against its troops in two townships in Rakhine state, as well as in Ayeyarwady and Bago regions.

The group said it occupied a military base it had besieged on a strategic hill in Bago a day after declaring its ceasefire, but honored its terms by failing to attack the army's retreating soldiers.

The shadow National Unity Government on Saturday accused the military of carrying out 63 airstrikes and artillery attacks since the earthquake, resulting in the deaths of 68 civilians, including one child and 15 women.

However, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for the military government, said in an audio message to journalists on Saturday night that the groups in the Three Brotherhood Alliance and the Kachin Independence Army, as well as the Karen National Union in southeastern Myanmar and pro-democracy forces in the central Magway region and other groups violated the ceasefires by attacking the army.

“We are carrying out relief and assistance efforts for the people affected by the earthquake. I am saying this to make everyone aware of the ceasefire violations at a time like this,” Zaw Min Tun said.