10,000 Parisians demonstrate against Rafah bombing by Israel

Paris, France — AFP

About 10,000 people took part in a demonstration near the Israeli embassy in Paris against Israel’s bombing of the refugee town of Rafah.

The demonstrators gathered a few hundred metres from the embassy in the centre of the French capital and chanted “We are all Gaza children”, “Free Gaza” and other slogans in favour of the oppressed Palestinians.

The gathering was organized a day after Israel’s “horrific” strike on displaced peoples’ shelters in Rafah’s “safe zone” which set off a fire in the tent city, killing 45 unsuspecting refugees who dwelled in the area with their families. Israel has faced international condemnation over the attack which used the deadliest bombs on hapless displaced civilians.

“It is a massacre too many,” said François Rippe of the Association France-Palestine Solidarity group that organized the rally, that the Paris police service said involved about 10,000 people.

“They start a fire in a camp for displaced, they burn people and we (France) don’t even summon the Israeli ambassador to ask for an account. It is just not acceptable,” Rippe added.

One large banner at the rally showed presidents Emmanuel Macron of France Joe Biden of the United States and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the slogan “it is humanity they are assassinating”. France and the United States — both forefront allies of Israel, accused of genocide — have condemned the attack.

Israel has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October last year.