Tens of thousands of people are marching in major cities across Europe to protest against Israel’s war on Gaza, with mass rallies taking place in urban centres across the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Protests in Spain’s second-largest city, Barcelona, as well as in Madrid, were planned weeks ago, while calls for demonstrations in Rome and Lisbon followed widespread anger after Israeli forces intercepted a humanitarian aid flotilla – the Global Sumud Flotilla – that had set sail from Barcelona for Gaza, trying to break Israel’s blockade of the famine-struck Palestinian territory.
More than 40 Spaniards, including a former Barcelona mayor, are among the 450 activists that Israel detained from the flotilla’s boats this week.
Italy already saw more than two million people ra