Thousands of pro-Palestinian protestors gathered across Ireland on Saturday to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Demonstrators gathered in Dublin and Belfast for major rallies, while protests also took place in Cork, Limerick, Armagh, Clare, and Sligo on Saturday afternoon.
The Dublin rally marched up O'Connell Street toward the GPO, while the Belfast protest took place on Royal Avenue, with protestors gathering at City Hall to listen to several speakers.
Some protestors in Dublin carried bundles of white fabric stained with red to signify the death of children killed during Israeli airstrikes, while protestors in Dublin and Belfast chanted "Free Palestine" and "Stop Gaza genocide".
Other protestors held signs with slogans such as "It's ethnic cleansing not conflict" and "End Israeli apartheid".
Thousands march through Dublin for #Palestine for the 3d Saturday in a row - stop the assault on #Gaza - orgsanised by @ipsc48 pic.twitter.com/UhQ5A0pib7
— Andrew Flood (@andrewflood) October 28, 2023
The Dublin protest, which was organized by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, called for international sanctions and boycotts against Israel.
Several representatives of the Muslim community in Northern Ireland addressed the crowd during Saturday's rally in Belfast, including Dr. Hani Mahdi, who grew up in Gaza and now lives in Northern Ireland.
Dr. Mahdi asked those gathered to "remember the people of Gaza", stating that people are "being killed" and "living without electricity, gas, water, and now no communication".
"Just remember this when you feel down in your life, when you feel you have nothing left, just remember Gaza people," Dr. Mahdi said during Saturday's rally.
"A lot of Palestinian people lost members of their family, but we will not stop demanding our rights. We will fight and struggle until our last drop of our blood."
He told the crowd that he has lost 30 family members in Gaza.
"All our homes were destroyed. Most of our martyrs, our children and women, most of our young we don’t know where we are now," he said on Saturday.
He accused Israel of carrying out an "unhinged project" and added that there was a good chance that he would not be alive if he still lived in Gaza because his area has been "completely destroyed and leveled".
Several Northern Irish politicians also spoke at the rally in Belfast on Saturday, including Sinn Féin MLA Declan Kearney, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll, and SDLP councilor Paul Doherty.
Kearney called for an unconditional ceasefire and said pro-Palestinian protests were more important than ever.
The Sinn Féin MLA described the situation in Gaza as a "humanitarian catastrophe" and called for immediate international intervention.
Representatives from several Northern Irish trade unions also spoke at Saturday's rally, including Paddy Mackel, chair of Belfast Trades Council.
"You cannot ignore the illegal occupation of Palestine, the recolonization of large parts of the occupied West Bank," Mackel told the crowd.
The Gaza Ministry of Health has estimated that more than 7,000 Palestinians have died in Israeli strikes launched in Gaza in response to unprecedented Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7.
Officials estimate that roughly half of those killed in the strikes have been children.
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