On Saturday, June 14, at the Paris march of the national 'grand demonstration' organized by five unions to condemn "the deadly headlong rush of Israeli authorities and the atrocities committed in Gaza," anger was felt everywhere. "Military embargo!" "Free, free, free Palestine!" the several thousand protesters chanted and shouted loudly.

"Enough! We have to call out this genocide, we've had it with our government's inaction," declared Sara, Rihab, and Jade (who did not wish to give their last names), three friends in their early thirties. It was visible on banners – "Netanyahu guilty of genocide," "Stop genocide!" "Free Georges Abdallah," the latter referring to the pro-Palestinian Marxist activist who has been imprisoned in France for nearly 40 years for complicity in the murder of two diplomats in Paris in 1982. "He has become the symbol of the Palestinian people's fight for freedom," noted Camille, 58, a special education teacher. Anger was everywhere, but so too were anxiety and fear.

The protest took place less than 48 hours after Israel's massive attack on Iran. The ideological army of the Iranian regime vowed to avenge their deaths. The two countries have been exchanging deadly strikes for three consecutive days. "All of this is really frightening," confided Pascale, 65, a coordinating nurse at an elder care home, who lives in Western France but came to protest "the appalling situation in Gaza." "I'm afraid of a world war, even though, in reality, I feel like we're already in one," she added. "But we are in it, it's happening," insisted Camille.

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