Rally in Pakistan condemns US for arming Israel to continue attacks on Gaza

ISLAMABAD

A large number of pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Friday to protest the US’s support and arming of Israel, which has been attacking the people of the besieged Gaza Strip since Oct. 7.

"The US is the financier of this genocide (of Palestinians)," former Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, who led the rally, told Anadolu.

The rally was organized by the students' wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's mainstream religious party.

Hundreds of people gathered at Aab Para in central Islamabad and marched to the US Embassy to protest Washington's continued support for Israel, which earlier this week also launched airstrikes on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge.

The protest rally after weekly Friday prayers, led by former Senator Khan, was blocked by police, who erected barbed wire barricades in front of the Diplomatic Enclave, a massive walled area that houses all major countries' missions and embassy residences.

The former lawmaker also chastised the Pakistani government for using police force against students who were planning to register their protest against the US.

"We wanted to register our protest, which is peaceful and our constitutional right, outside the US Embassy," Khan told Anadolu, referring to the US as the "financier of this genocide."

A large number of women and children participated in the march, with protesters holding large Palestinian flags, placards, and banners with slogans such as "Students' Gaza March," "Say No to Israeli Terrorism," and "Free Palestine, Stop Genocide."

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion last year that killed about 1,200 people.

Tel Aviv’s war has since killed more than 34,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, while some 78,500 others have been injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Over seven months into Israel’s genocidal war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory.

It also ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and asked it to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to Gaza’s civilians.