Gaza suffered a total communications blackout Friday night, cutting off its residents from the rest of the world as a result of Israel’s bombardment, a move which was protested by global citizens on Saturday.
Pro-Palestine protesters in London, New York, and Turkey took to the streets in huge numbers to call out Israel’s war crimes in Gaza.
Israel’s army pounded Gaza mercilessly on Saturday following a night of intense shelling that, according to rescuers, damaged hundreds of buildings, three weeks into a war sparked by the worst attack in the nation’s history.
Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Israel to “immediately stop” the attacks, while the families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas demanded a government explanation about their fate amid the army’s intensified air and artillery strikes.
The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Saturday that at least 7,703 people have been killed in the war with Israel that erupted on October 7.
More than 3,500 children are among the dead. The overall figure is the highest number of war fatalities in Gaza since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the territory in 2005.
The latest Israeli raids were one of the most intense nights of attacks since the war began and coincided with ground operations.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along the Gaza border ahead of an expected full-blown invasion, Israeli forces had also made limited ground incursions on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
“Hundreds of buildings and houses were completely destroyed and thousands of other homes were damaged,” said Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
An estimated 100,000 people participated in London’s “National March for Palestine” demonstration, which was organised to protest Israel’s ongoing bombing and complete siege of Gaza.
Hundreds of people were arrested when police broke up a large demonstration of mostly Jewish New Yorkers who had taken over the main hall of Grand Central station in protest of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, police and organisers said.
