Thousands flood Arab world's streets in support of Palestine

News Desk - The Cradle

Pro-Palestine rallies came on the first day of a four-day truce in Gaza, which will see the first prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel

As Gaza saw its first day of a truce on 24 November, widespread protests flooded the streets of several West Asian capitals. 

In Beirut, hundreds flocked outside the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) headquarters. 

The protesters waved flags and chanted slogans in support of Gaza and the Palestinian resistance. 

Massive rallies also rocked several Yemeni cities, including the capital Sanaa. In Saada governorate, four different squares were filled with demonstrators. 

A statement released by one of the Yemeni protest groups declared “support for the choices of jihad and resistance” while denouncing "the brutal and barbaric Israeli aggression” and “Arab failure” to stop the massacres. 

Bahrainis in the coastal town of Diraz also came out to protest following Friday prayers, chanting support for Gaza and denouncing their government’s normalization with Tel Aviv. 

In the Jordanian capital, Amman, thousands marched and carried pictures of Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. 

Protestors carried banners bearing the slogan “Resistance is our choice.” 

Demonstrations also occurred in Qatar, Australia, Japan, and several other countries. 

In a speech on Thursday, the Qassam Brigades spokesman had called for protestors to “escalate all forms of popular action.” 

The current ceasefire, which began on Friday, will last four days. The protests come as Hamas and Israel are carrying out a prisoner exchange, which is to see 13 Israelis freed for 39 Palestinians. 

This is part of a total of 50 Israeli women and children and 150 Palestinian women and teenage males who are to be exchanged over the coming four days. 

“We affirm our commitment to implementing and ensuring the agreement's success, as long as the enemy also commits,” Head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, said in a statement. 

Haniyeh also praised the resistance fighters in Gaza who “proudly and honorably faced the occupation, breaking its will and foiling its plans.”