Global protests in support of Palestine after Israel’s deadly bombings

Gaza suffered a total communications blackout on Friday night, cutting off its residents from the rest of the world as a result of Israeli bombardment, a move protested by global citizens on Saturday.

Pro-Palestine protesters in London, New York and Turkey took to the streets in huge numbers to call out Israel’s war crimes in Gaza.

Israel’s military pounded Gaza mercilessly on Saturday after a night of intense shelling that rescuers said destroyed hundreds of buildings, three weeks after the war sparked the worst attack in the nation’s history.

Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Israel to “immediately stop” the attacks, while the families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas demanded an explanation from the government about their fate amid intensified airstrikes and shelling by the army.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that at least 7,703 people had been killed in the war with Israel that broke out on October 7.

More than 3,500 children are among the dead. The total is the highest number of war deaths in Gaza since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the territory in 2005.

The latest Israeli raids were one of the most intense nights of attacks since the start of the war and coincided with ground operations.

With tens of thousands of troops massed along the Gaza border in anticipation of an expected full-scale invasion, Israeli forces had also carried out limited ground incursions on Wednesday night and Thursday.

“Hundreds of buildings and houses were completely destroyed and thousands of other houses were damaged,” said Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal.

An estimated 100,000 people took part in London’s National March for Palestine demonstration, which was organized to protest Israel’s continued bombing and total siege of Gaza.

Hundreds of people were arrested after police broke up a large demonstration of mostly Jewish New Yorkers who had occupied Grand Central Station’s main concourse to protest Israel’s shelling of Gaza, police and organizers said.