New Delhi: Thousands of people across the Middle East and North Africa staged protests against a devastating Israeli airstrike on the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza killed at least 500 people on Tuesday. People in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, and in West Bank cities like Ramallah went up in arms over the hospital bombing, reportedly the single deadliest attack amid the Israel Hamas conflict since October 7.
According to a report by news agency AFP, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah called for a “day of rage” that would coincide with US president Joe Biden’s visit on Wednesday.
After Hezbollah’s call, protesters scuffled with Lebanese security forces outside the US embassy in Awkar, outside Beirut. The protesters hurled stones and raised “death to America” and “death to Israel” slogans, AFP reported.
In Jordan, the protesters attempted to storm the Israeli embassy. Police had to resort to teargas to disperse the agitating crowd. Several people gathered at Palestine Square in central Tehran to stage protest, AFP reported.
In Libya, the protesters held Palestine flags as they crisscrossed the streets of Tripoli before reaching Martyrs’ Square.
Condemning the attack, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the hospital bombing was “the latest example of Israeli attacks devoid of the most basic human values”.
Israeli Reservists Set Aside Protest Against PM Netanyahu's Judicial Reforms To Help Survivors Of Hamas Attacks
Amid mounting public anger over the scale of the Hamas terror attacks and the fatalities and lasting mental and emotional scars it inflicted, a group of Israeli Reservists operating under the banner of ‘Brothers in Arms’ are going about mobilising help to the kin of victims and survivors, news agency Reuters reported.
According to Reuters, the Reservists, who were not asked to join the ongoing Israeli counter-offensive against Hamas on Gaza Strip, set aside their protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to reduce the powers of the country’s highest court, and decided to lend a helping hand to the kin of victims and survivors.
The Reservists have provided food to hundreds of people rendered homeless, collected money to supply armour and helmets to the soldiers. They also launched an initiative to milk the cows that were abandoned in the farms evacuated following the Hamas attack on October 7.
"Everything that theoretically, the government should have done was initially organized by the protest movements," retired helicopter pilot Guy Poran told Reuters.
Although the volunteers are engaged in the relief operations, there is a seething resentment against PM Netanyahu, who has yet to accept responsibility for the intelligence failures that led to the surprise Hamas attack.
“The man is a dead man walking. These things are a level of negligence that, regardless of anything that he has done over the last 10 months, they will justify his departure,” Poran told the news agency.
Notably, the people in Israel have been protesting against the country’s judicial reform plans, which, according to the protesters, would undermine Israel’s democracy and, in turn, weaken the judicial system. Thousands of military reservists threatened to boycott work, triggering fears in the military that Israel's security would be compromised.