AFP :
Tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities around the world over the weekend calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon as the war in the Palestinian territory neared the one-year mark.
In Washington, more than a thousand protesters demonstrated outside the White House, demanding the United States, Israel’s top military supplier, stop providing weapons and aid to Israel.
One man attempted to set himself on fire, AFP journalists saw, succeeding in lighting his left arm ablaze before bystanders and police extinguished the flames.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters also gathered in cities across Europe, Africa, Australia and the Americas to demand an end to the conflict, which has killed nearly 42,000 people in Gaza.
Candlelight vigils are set to take place on the anniversary on Monday of Hamas’s attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,825 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the territory’s health ministry and described as reliable by the United Nations.
With Israel now mounting a ground operation in Lebanon and vowing to respond to a barrage of missiles fired by Iran this week, there are fears the conflict could spiral into a wider war.
Underlining international polarization over events in the Middle East, demonstrations in support of both Israel and the Palestinians are planned worldwide — sometimes with rival events scheduled in the same city.
A pro-Palestinian protest in Rome that drew thousands of people turned violent, as dozens of young demonstrators threw bottles and firecrackers at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannon.
At least one policeman was wounded and two protestors were detained, AFP journalists said.
“Israel is a criminal state!” the demonstrators shouted.
In Berlin, police said they had detained 26 people who shouted insults at a pro-Israeli commemoration attended by around 650 people.
Meanwhile, a pro-Palestinian demonstration drew just over 1,000 protestors in the German capital, police said.
At the “National March for Palestine” in London, chants of “stop bombing civilians” were joined by shouts of “hands off Lebanon”.
Zackerea Bakir, 28, said he has attended dozens of marches around the United Kingdom. Large numbers continue to turn up because “everyone wants a change”, he told AFP.
“It’s continuing to just get worse and worse, and yet nothing seems to be changing,” said Bakir, joined at the rally by his mother and brother.
While the rally in London was largely peaceful, at least 15 people were arrested, including three on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker and one on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation.
In Dublin, several hundred people took to the streets, waving Palestinian flags and chanting: “Ceasefire now!”.