Several thousand people took part in a demonstration in Paris on Saturday attended by pro-Palestinian activist and European candidate for the far-left party, and regularly suspected of anti-Semitism, La France Insoumise Rima Hassan, to demand a
“ immediate ceasefire”
in Gaza after a little more than five months of war between Israel and the terrorist movement Hamas.
According to the police headquarters, the procession brought together 11,500 demonstrators.
An organizer announced
“60,000 people”
on the microphone.
Responding to a call from the Urgence Palestine collective, supported by France Insoumise (LFI), the demonstrators, who brandished posters proclaiming
“SOS Gaza”
and Palestinian flags, left from Place de la République and completed their march around 5 p.m. on the Place de la Bourse.
They chanted
“Stop genocide”
,
“Israel, apartheid, boycott”
and
“Free Palestine”
.
The leader of LFI Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the head of the party's list in the European elections Manon Aubry and Rima Hassan, who also appears on this list, were present in the procession.
Movements throughout France
“A few months ago, it was as a citizen that I joined all of these mobilizations
,” declared the Franco-Palestinian activist at the start of the demonstration.
“Today, I am delighted to continue them alongside a political family, a political movement, and that of France Insoumise
,” she added.
“France's voice counts and more than ever it must resonate in the European Parliament to once again obtain a permanent and immediate ceasefire and peace between peoples”
.
In Lyon, around 750 people, according to the Rhône prefecture, demonstrated in the city center behind a large banner
“Lift the criminal siege of Gaza”
.
A
“peace march”
of 36 km, the distance between Gaza City and Rafah, was also organized from Strasbourg.
In Nantes, 800 people demonstrated
“peacefully”
, according to the Loire-Atlantique prefecture.
The PS mayor of the city, Johanna Rolland wrote on X:
“Present at the demonstration in #Nantes this afternoon to demand an immediate ceasefire.
30,000 deaths and famine in #Gaza: the massacre of civilian populations must stop.
The hostages must be released.”
After more than five months of a devastating war triggered by the Hamas attack, Israeli strikes on Gaza show no respite: in the last 24 hours, at least 82 people have died, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 30,960 since the start of the conflict according to the authorities of the Islamist movement, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, in southern Israel, according to an AFP count based on official sources.
Around 250 people were also kidnapped and taken to Gaza that day, and 130 hostages are still being held there, 31 of whom Israel says are dead.
In response, Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union.