Clashes in the Middle East: 22,000 people marched in France for the Palestinian people

Several thousand people demonstrated in France and around the world this Saturday in support of the Palestinian people in the context of military escalation between the Israeli army and Hamas around the Gaza Strip.

In France, all eyes were on Paris where the police headquarters, at the request of the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin, had banned the march initiated by the association "France Palestine" which was to rally Barbès instead. of the Bastille.

This did not prevent between 2,500 and 3,500 people from massing in the north of the capital.

At 3.30 p.m., the cries of “assassin Israel” echoed louder and louder when the police gave the first charge at Boulevard Ornano (18th century).

The tear gas bombs launched from a distance are no longer sufficient to disperse the groups of several dozen demonstrators.

The mobile gendarmes arrested their first target, a young helmeted man who had moved street furniture.

Demonstrators flow back into the small rue de la Porte-Blanche.

A Palestinian flag on his back, a man with bifocal glasses howls his anger against "the accomplice state of Israel".

Later, projectiles are launched and pallets set on fire.

Read alsoClashes between Israel and Hamas: six questions about a conflagration

According to the police headquarters, at 7 p.m., 44 people had been arrested.

A gendarme briefly lost consciousness after being shot and had to be taken to hospital, but his condition was not considered serious.

Despite these sporadic outbursts, no rampages or anti-Semitic slogans were noted.

Several shops in the area have even remained open despite the ban.

“We came to support our Palestinian brothers and sisters,” say Nassera and Chaïma, two teenagers from Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis).

In his sixties, Samir, who came as a neighbor, displays a poster representing "a Palestinian child disfigured by Israel".

"Why are we banned from demonstrating?

Where's the freedom of expression?

»Is irritated Josiane who never ceases to rail against the tear gas.

In regions, demonstrations that have remained calm

According to the Interior Ministry, the processions gathered 22,000 people across the country.

Demonstrations that have remained calm, Place Beauvau has recorded only 7 arrests elsewhere than in the capital.

Abroad, thousands of people demonstrated in central London (United Kingdom) on Saturday, calling on the British government to intervene to stop the Israeli military operation.

In Madrid (Spain), around 2,500 people marched in peace.

This day of mobilization did not silence the guns. The day was notably marked by the bombing of the Gazan building which housed the offices of the American news agency Associated Press (AP) and the Qatari channel Al Jazeera. In a statement, Israeli forces claimed that the building in question housed "entities belonging to the military intelligence of the terrorist organization Hamas". AP management said they were "shocked and horrified" by the strike.