JOHANNESBURG

A large number of pro-Palestine South Africans protested outside the US Consulate in Johannesburg on Wednesday, criticizing Washington's decision to send weapons to Israel, which is currently engaged in a deadly conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Protesters were seen outside the consulate, waving Palestinian flags and some carrying banners with messages of support and solidarity with the Palestinian people.

"It is insane for the US to be an integral part of Israel's relentless savagery and brutality while millions of innocent civilians in Gaza are being slaughtered," Iqbal Jassat, an executive member of the South Africa-based Media Review Network who was present at the protest demonstration, told Anadolu.

Protesters outside the US consulate sent a powerful message to the Joe Biden administration, which announced this week that it has begun delivering critically needed weapons to Israel, Jassat said, adding that these weapons will undoubtedly be used against people in Gaza.

“The airstrikes and bombings of residential apartments, schools, hospitals, UN installations, and civilian infrastructures while at the same time mass starvation has been enforced, are in violation of all civilized values,” he said.

The US is well aware that international humanitarian law forbids such aggression, but in defiance has not only encouraged it but is actively complicit, he said, chastising Washington for fanning the deadly conflict rather than de-escalating it to save innocent lives.

Mametlwe Sebei, president of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa, said they were joining protesters to show solidarity with Palestinians who have faced decades of oppression and the people of Gaza who continue to live under siege.

A similar protest demonstration was held in Cape Town, where people expressed outrage at Israeli bombings on Gaza and called for an end to violence.

This week, South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) called for an immediate cessation of violence between Israel and Palestine.

In a dramatic escalation of Mideast tensions, Israeli forces have launched a sustained and forceful military campaign against the Gaza Strip, a response to a military offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israeli territories.

The conflict began when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel, a multi-pronged surprise attack including a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel via land, sea, and air, which Hamas said was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and Israeli settlers’ growing violence against Palestinians.

In response to Hamas' actions, the Israeli military launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip.

Israel's response has extended into cutting water and electricity supplies to Gaza, further worsening the living conditions in an area that has reeled under a crippling siege since 2007.