Thousands join DC pro-Palestine rally to demand ceasefire: Updates

Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel for “consultations” citing the “humanitarian tragedy” in the Strip and the continuation of the airstrikes.

A number of other countries, such as Honduras, Colombia, Chile, and Bahrain, have also called back their top diplomats in the country.

Three people were arrested at anti-government protests in Jerusalem on Saturday as demonstrators called on Mr Netanyahu to resign following his failure to prevent the 7 October attack.

Massive pro-Palestinian protests took place all over the world on Saturday, including in London and in Washington.

A speaker with the Palestinian American Community Network accused President Joe Biden of “dehumanising” Palestinians.

She also announced upcoming protests at the headquarters of the RNC and DNC.

One of the organisers, the leftwing group called the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, has said that they will “deliver coffins draped in Palestinian flags to the White House to send a powerful message to the Biden administration”.

They also argue that Israel has instituted “apartheid”.

Its executive director Brian Becker told The Washington Post that “people are mortified by the carnage” in Gaza.

“And they are equally mortified that the Biden administration has insisted that there not be a cease-fire,” he added.

The chief executive officer of the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center, Jen Zwilling, emailed the centre’s members on Friday to ask them ahead of the rally on Saturday to “resist the urge to counter-protest and/or engage” with the pro-Palestine demonstrators.

She noted that that may “increase the potential for violence or antisemitic rhetoric,” according to The Washington Post.

The “Free Palestine” rally in Washington DC on Saturday was part of an effort to push the Biden administration to cease its deliveries of aid to Israel and to back a ceasefire.

Last month, Mr Biden announced an aid package to Israel – the largest recipient of US aid – worth $14bn. As of last year, Israel had received about $150bn, a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service stated.

A Quinnipiac University poll published on Thursday shows that about half of all registered voters in the US back Israel’s response to the 7 October Hamas attack.

The lowest approval rating for Israel’s actions is seen among Democrats – 33 per cent, voters between 18 and 34 years old – 32 per cent, and Black voters – 29 per cent, according to Quinnipiac.

Fifty-one per cent of Americans back sending more military support to Israel and 71 per cent back sending humanitarian aid to Gaza to help Palestinian civilians.

Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed back against growing pressure from the US for a humanitarian pause in its war on Hamas to protect civilians and get more aid into Gaza, saying there will be no temporary ceasefire until all hostages are released.

Flying into Tel Aviv on Friday, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, sought to urge the Israeli prime minister to let-up the military offensive, at least for a time. However, Mr Netanyahu said that Israel will continue “with full force” unless Hamas releases more than 240 hostages.

It comes as an ambulance was struck outside Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, in Gaza City. The health ministry in the Hamas-run strip said that it was part of a convoy that was seeking to evacuate the wounded from northern Gaza to the south and that “several citizens were killed and dozens wounded”.

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Thousands of people joined a rally in downtown Washington DC to call for a ceasefire amid Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attempts to walk a fine line between the demands of Israel and the region’s Arab countries.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Mr Blinken’s Qatari counterpart, told the top US diplomat at a meeting in Amman, the capital of Jordan, on Saturday that mediation to get Hamas to release hostages is jeopardised by the Israeli bombing, the foreign ministry of Qatar said.

Mr Blinken met with the foreign ministers from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt, in addition to the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Mr Blinken is on a trip to several countries throughout the Middle East following his third visit to Israel in the four weeks that have passed since the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas, the group in charge of Gaza that has been labelled as a terror organisation by the US and the EU, which led to the brutal killing of more than 1,400 people.

More than 9,000 people have died in Gaza, following Israeli counterattacks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

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