Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched in Barcelona, Rome and other cities on Saturday as anti-Israel rallies were held across Europe to protest the war in Gaza.
Protests in Spain’s second-largest city as well as in Madrid were called weeks ago, while calls for demonstrations in Rome and Lisbon followed widespread anger after Israel intercepted and detained over 470 activists on the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotillas, which sought to break Israel’s naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled Strip.
Over 40 Spaniards, including a former Barcelona mayor, were among the activists Israel removed from the 42 Sumud boats it intercepted on Thursday and Friday.
Italy already saw more than 2 million people rally on Friday across the country in a one-day general strike to support the residents of Gaza.
Spain has seen an upsurge of support for Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with its left-wing government intensifying diplomatic efforts against Jerusalem. Protests against the presence of an Israeli-owned cycling team repeatedly disrupted the Spanish Vuelta last month, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the destruction in Gaza a “genocide” and asked for the ban of all Israeli teams from international sporting events.
Barcelona’s town hall said police estimated that 70,000 turned out for Saturday’s demonstration.
People packed Barcelona’s wide Passeig de Gracia, the city’s main central boulevard. Many families turned out, along with people of all ages. Protesters carried Palestinian flags or wore pro-Palestinian t-shirts. Hand-held signs bore messages like “Gaza hurts me,” “Stop the Genocide,” and “Hands off the flotilla.”
While the protests are expected to have little sway on the course of the war, demonstrators hope they could inspire other rallies and encourage European leaders to take a harder line against Israel.
María Jesús Parra, 63, carried a Palestinian flag high after making an hour-long trip from her home in another town to Barcelona. She wants the European Union to act against what she described as the horrors she watches on televised news on a daily basis.
“How is it possible that we are witnessing a genocide happening live after what we [as Europe] experienced in the 1940s?” Parra said. “Now nobody can say they didn’t know what was happening.”
A protest in Rome was also underway, organized by three Palestinian organizations along with local unions and students. People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers claimed attracted hundreds of thousands of people.
On Friday, Italian unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with anti-Israel demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
Meloni blamed protesters for the insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Protests in Madrid and Lisbon were held later Saturday. There were also protests called across many other Spanish cities.
A protest was also being staged in Athens Saturday afternoon, although police believe a bigger one will take place Sunday, to coincide with a pro-Israeli one.
Elsewhere, several thousand people marched through the center of the Irish capital, Dublin, to mark what organizers said was “two years of genocide” in Gaza.
Additionally, a demonstration against Israel was held in Argentina’s capital of Buenos Aires.
The calls for protests in Southern Europe and elsewhere come as the IDF was ordered to halt its Gaza City offensive after US President Donald Trump said Friday that Hamas accepted his plan to end the war sparked when the terror group invaded Israel on October 7, 2023.
Trump presented the plan on Monday in a joint press conference at the White House with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who endorsed the proposal. On Friday, Hamas said it agreed to the offer’s hostage exchange formula, but did not address the issue of its disarmament — a key US and Israeli demand that the terror group has rejected.
The plan has been welcomed by Arab, Muslim and Western nations, as well as the Palestinian Authority. Some anti-Israel activist groups in the US have slammed the offer, saying it amounted to surrender.