A protest takes place in Paris after Israel killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza, violating the ceasefire [Getty]
Hamas has called for global demonstrations, including outside US and Israeli embassies around the world, following renewed Israeli bombing of Gaza, which has shattered the ceasefire agreement.
The intense bombing campaign, which started at around 2 am on Tuesday, has killed nearly 1,000 people, the majority being women and children.
While Hamas has reiterated that they are committed to the ceasefire agreement despite the Israeli attacks, they have also blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for sabotaging the deal and restarting the hostilities to “avoid his [corruption] trial”.
In a statement on Tuesday, Hamas called for mass demonstrations and a “global blockade” of Israeli and US embassies around the world.
The group called on the “Arabic and Islamic world” and “free people everywhere,” to escalate their acts of solidarity and explicitly condemn the renewed Israeli air strikes.
“The fascist occupation government has resumed its barbaric aggression and genocidal war against our people in Gaza – violating all human norms, values, and laws during the holy month of Ramadan,” a statement from the group read.
Another statement from the group called on activists to mobilise and wave the Palestinian flag and to reiterate calls for Palestinian freedom.
Hamas said the call was “in response to the Israeli government’s resumption of its military aggression and its reversal of the ceasefire agreement, which has flouted all international and humanitarian laws and norms”.
Taher al-Nunu, the group’s media advisor to the head of the movement’s political bureau, said “urgent action” was now required to compel Israel to “halt its aggression and allow humanatrian supplies into the Strip”.
He also accused the US of being complicit in “ongoing crimes against the Gaza Strip,” adding “condemnations today are not enough”.
This comes after Netanyahu said the airstrikes were “just the beginning” and claimed that violating the ceasefire was “decided after Hamas rejected all proposals, and therefore, from that moment on, “negotiations will be conducted under fire”.
Netanyahu has been pushing for an extension of the first phase of the deal and the release of all captives, while Hamas has stressed that this violates the terms of the deal.
Protests in Jordan, London, US
Protests have already taken place around the world against Israel’s renewed attacks on Gaza. Video footage shared on social media showed hundreds of people gathering in the Jordanian capital Amman to denounce Israel’s renewed strikes on the Strip.
In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, local media reported that scores of demonstrators marched downtown to condemn the Israeli onslaught.
“We in the West Bank have our hearts with Gaza, we feel their pain and sacrifice – their commitment to the true humanitarian, Arab and Islamic cause, which seeks to overcome the Zionist and US brutality,” Walid al-Huwaidi, a Palestinian writer attending the protest told local media.
In the US, protesters rallied outside the White House and in several states, including New York, San Fransisco, Dallas and Los Angeles.
The Palestinian Youth Movement, a pro-Palestine group, shared footage of protesters also gathered in New York’s iconic Times Square.
Many of the protesters could be heard chanting “stop the US war machine” and “tear this occupation down”.
Activists have lambasted the US for its role in the war on Gaza and arms packages sent to Israel, with the Pentagon announcing earlier this month that the US approved a new weapons sales to Israel worth almost $3 billion.
In London, over 3,000 people gathered outside Downing Street on Tuesday, calling on the government to stop arming Israel and push Israel to re-commit to the truce.
