Thousands march to Israeli Embassy in Athens to protest attacks in Gaza

ATHENS

Thousands of people on Saturday marched to the Israeli Embassy in Athens to protest months of relentless attacks on the Gaza Strip and show solidarity with Palestinians.

The crowd, which included people affiliated with left-wing parties, trade unions, professional groups, and Palestinians living in Greece, carried Palestinian flags and banners condemning Israeli attacks on Gaza as well as NATO and expressing support for independent Palestine.

Speaking at the rally, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, head of the Greek Communist Party, the fourth-biggest party in parliament with strong ties with major unions, warned of the risk of the Israeli-Palestine conflict expanding to the whole region and reiterated his opposition to the deployment of Greek warship Hydra to the Red Sea for a US-led mission to safeguard shipping.

With the latest Palestinian casualties, the death toll from Israel's ongoing attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7 has risen to 26,257, with 64,797 others injured, according to Gaza health officials.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.