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.″



Myanmar Quake Death Toll at 3,354, Junta Leader Returns from Summit

Rescue workers stand on the street next to a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 5, 2025, following the March 28 earthquake. (Photo by Zaw Htun / AFP)
Rescue workers stand on the street next to a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 5, 2025, following the March 28 earthquake. (Photo by Zaw Htun / AFP)
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Myanmar Quake Death Toll at 3,354, Junta Leader Returns from Summit

Rescue workers stand on the street next to a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 5, 2025, following the March 28 earthquake. (Photo by Zaw Htun / AFP)
Rescue workers stand on the street next to a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 5, 2025, following the March 28 earthquake. (Photo by Zaw Htun / AFP)

The death toll from Myanmar's devastating earthquake climbed to 3,354, with 4,850 injured and 220 missing, state media said on Saturday, as the visiting U.N. aid chief praised humanitarian and community groups for leading the aid response.
The leader of the military government, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, was back in the capital Naypyitaw after a rare foreign trip to attend a summit in Bangkok of South and Southeast Asian nations, where he also met separately with the leaders of Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and India.
Min Aung Hlaing reaffirmed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the junta's plans to hold "free and fair" elections in December, Reuters quoted Myanmar state media as saying.
Modi called for a post-quake ceasefire in Myanmar's civil war to be made permanent, and said the elections needed to be "inclusive and credible", an Indian foreign affairs spokesperson said on Friday.
Critics have derided the planned election as a sham to keep the generals in power through proxies.
Since overthrowing the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run Myanmar, leaving the economy and basic services, including healthcare, in tatters, a situation exacerbated by the March 28 quake.
The civil war that followed the coup has displaced more than 3 million people, with widespread food insecurity and more than a third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance, the UN says.
United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher spent Friday night in Myanmar's second-biggest city Mandalay, near the epicenter of the quake, posting on X that humanitarian and community groups had led the response to the quake with "courage, skill and determination".
"Many themselves lost everything, and yet kept heading out to support survivors," he said.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday the junta was restricting aid supplies to quake-hit areas where communities did not back its rule. The UN office said it was investigating 53 reported attacks by the junta against opponents, including airstrikes, of which 16 were after the ceasefire was declared on Wednesday.
A junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.