Thousands of Egyptians join rallies nationwide in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza

Ahram Online , Friday 20 Oct 2023

Tens of thousands of Egyptians joined angry rallies nationwide on Friday to support the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing brutal Israeli war on the strip, rejecting any attempt at a forced displacement of the Palestinians.

Egyptians
Egyptians holding Palestinian flag during a rally to express their support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Friday 20 October, 2023.

 

Tens of thousands of Egyptians joined angry rallies across all the country’s governorates on Friday to support the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who have been under relentless Israeli airstrikes coupled with a complete Israeli blockade -- with no food, water, fuel, power, and medicines -- for two weeks now.

Demonstrators filled the streets at 27 locations in all of the nation's governorates as called for by various political parties in a show of support for the embattled people in the Gaza Strip and in condemnation of Israeli grisly attacks on the 2.3 million civilian population of the strip.

The protesters asserted that the Egyptian People and the Egyptian State stand united in defense of the Palestinian cause and against its liquidation through the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza from their lands.

In Cairo, Egyptians held a massive rally in front of the Memorial of the Unknown Soldier in the Nasr City district, where protesters carried Palestinian flags, chanted slogans against the Israeli government, and called for the entry of urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Similar sizeable demonstrations took place in Matrouh and Alexandria on the North Coast; Ismailia on the Suez Canal; and Fayoum, Minya, and Qena in Upper Egypt.

Protesters carried pictures of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, voicing their support for his stance rejecting the Israeli collective punishment of Gazans and any displacement of Palestinians to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

The Board of Trustees of the National Dialogue said the protests would affirm the unity of the Egyptian people and their government in the face of “threats to liquidate the Palestinian cause and harm Egypt’s national security and the integrity of its territories.”

It added that the Egyptians will always support the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, especially establishing an independent Palestinian state on 4 June 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

More protests
 

Other protests erupted spontaneously in front of major mosques across the nation after Friday’s prayer in the capital and in other governorates.

At Al-Azhar Mosque in Islamic Cairo, hundreds of demonstrators carried banners that read "Save Gaza", "Shoulder to shoulder with our people in Gaza", and ‘With you, Palestine" among others.

The demonstrators also chanted "With our souls and with our blood we will free you, Palestine" and "The crime is Zionist and the missile is American".

 

 

Aid to Gaza
 

Egypt has organized urgent relief for the Palestinians in Gaza with tens of trucks carrying humanitarian aid, donated by Egypt and various Arab countries, ready to cross the Rafah border crossing with Gaza to deliver food and medicine to 2.3 million Palestinians.

However, Israel has refused to allow aid to enter the besieged Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

United Nations and international humanitarian organizations describe the humanitarian situation for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as nothing short of catastrophic.

Egypt has condemned the Israeli policies of collective punishment in the aftermath of Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October and rejected attempts to displace Gazans to the Sinai Peninsula.

24/7 airstrikes
 

Israeli round-the-clock air strikes on Gaza have killed almost 4,000 civilians – including 1,000 children – and injured 12,065 more for two weeks.

Last week, Israel ordered the Palestinians to leave their houses in the north of Gaza and move south to proceed with its declared military operation against Hamas.

However, Israeli airstrikes continue to hammer civilian targets in the south of the strip unabated.

Israeli airstrikes have destroyed hundreds of homes and buildings in the strip, leaving more than one million Palestinians homeless.

In the last 72 hours, Israeli airstrikes against the Al-Ahly Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which killed 470 Palestinians and injured hundreds of others sheltering in its vicinity from Israeli bombardment of homes and neigbourhoods, drew Egyptian, Arab, and much international condemnation.

Again, Israeli airstrikes against the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza – which is sheltering hundreds of Palestinians displaced by Israel's brazen war on Gaza – killed 16 and injured many others.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza are facing the imminent threat of an Israeli ground invasion after the Israeli war cabinet green-lighted the move on Thursday.

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