MADRID (Dispatches) –
Protesters rallied outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Madrid on Friday, calling on the Spanish government to “stop the arms trade” with the Zionist regime and demanding an immediate ceasefire in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Footage shows crowds chanting and waving flags outside the building as they stood behind a large banner bearing the slogan: “Long live the struggle of the Palestinian people.”
Organizers called for the impromptu rally after reports emerged from the Gaza Health Ministry on Thursday that 100 people were killed after Israeli troops “opened fire” as people gathered for food aid.
According to media reports, people rushed to secure food and medicine from aid trucks. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that at least 104 people were killed and 760 injured.
Hundreds of protesters also gathered in Berlin to demand freedom for Palestine and a stop to the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The people of Cuba were also scheduled to join millions across the world on Saturday to demand that Israel end its genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza and stop its planned March 10 invasion of Rafah.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced X on Friday stating “Cuba joins the global mobilization this March 2 in support of Palestine. In all of the provinces and in Havana, we will be on the streets in solidarity with our brother people and to condemn the holocaust that Israel seeks to provoke in Rafah. Everyone for Gaza!”
The protest is organized by the Union of Young Communists and the Women’s Federation of Cuba. It will be held in the Cuban capital Havana, at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Plaza which is located in front of the U.S. Embassy where anti-imperialist protests are held in Havana.
Wasim Mustafa, a third-year Palestinian medical student in Cuba told Peoples Dispatch, “Cuba continues to provide outstanding support to the Palestinian cause and the right of the Palestinian people to life, to the best of its ability.”
Mustafa highlighted Cuba’s consistent position to stand with Palestine, politically and materially, “Over the years it has not tired of receiving and graduating medical students from Palestine, and here it is today…renewing its position with Gaza, Palestine, and its people in this terrible moment, by organizing several massive solidarity marches in its cities and streets.”
Meanwhile, more than 200 parliament members from 12 countries have urged their governments to impose a ban on arms sales to the Zionist regime, citing the occupying regime’s “grave violation of international law” in its war on Gaza.
“We know that lethal weapons and their parts, made or shipped through our countries, currently aid the Israeli assault on Palestine that has claimed over 30,000 lives across Gaza and the West Bank,” they said in a letter, organized by Progressive International, a network of socialist lawmakers and activists focused on international justice.
The politicians stressed that an arms embargo has become “a legal requirement”, especially after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to ensure its forces don’t commit genocide.
“We cannot wait. Following the interim ruling by the international court of justice (ICJ) on the genocide convention case against … Israel, an arms embargo has moved beyond a moral necessity to become a legal requirement,” said the letter, The Guardian reported on Friday.