*LONDON – Thousands of protesters marched in support of Palestinians inmajor European cities including London, Berlin, Madrid and Paris, as Israelcontinued the worst violence in years against Palestinians in Gaza.*

In London, several thousand protesters carrying placards reading “StopBombing Gaza” and chanting “Free Palestine” converged on Marble Arch, nearthe British capital’s Hyde Park, to march towards the Israeli embassy.

Packed crowds stretched all along Kensington’s High Street where theembassy is located.

Organisers claimed as many as 100,000 people had gathered for thedemonstration though London police said they were unable to confirm anyfigure.

“The group is spread across a large area which makes it impossible to countthem,” a Metropolitan Police spokesman said.

“Officers are engaging with a group of people who have gathered for ademonstration in central London this afternoon,” the police said in aseparate statement, adding that a plan was in place to curb the spread ofCOVID-19.

“This time is different. This time we will not be denied any more. We areunited. We have had enough of oppression,” Palestinian Ambassador HusamZomlot told the demonstrators.

“Today we are saying enough, enough with the complicity,” he added.

Simon Makepace, a 61-year-old accountant told AFP he had joined theprotests because “the whole world should be doing something about it,including this country”.

*’Stop what’s happening’*

He was critical of the United States, which he said was unfairly backingIsrael, and urged Washington to “make peace and stop what’s happening”.

Azadeh Pyman, a 50-year-old scientist said she had been raised on thePalestinian cause by her parents and grandparents.

“I’m not Palestinian originally but my heart bleeds for Palestinians,” shesaid. “I think it’s the cause that will go from one generation to anothergeneration, until Palestine is free.”

In Madrid, some 2,500 people, many of them young people wrapped inPalestinian flags, marched to the Puerta del Sol plaza in the city centre.

“This is not a war, it’s genocide,” they chanted.

“They are massacring us,” said Amira Sheikh-Ali, a 37-year-old ofPalestinian origin.

“We’re in a situation when the Nakba is continuing in the middle of the21st century,” she said, referring to the “catastrophe”, a word used byPalestinians to describe Israel’s creation in 1948 when hundreds ofthousands fled or were driven out.

“We want to ask Spain and the European authorities not to collaborate withIsrael, because with their silence, they are collaborating,” said IkhlassAbousousiane, a 25-year-old nurse of Moroccan origin.

The marches came amid the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence since a 2014war in Gaza.

*’Boycott Israel’*

Thousands marched in Berlin and other German cities following a call by theSamidoun collective.

Three marches were authorised in Berlin’s working class Neukoelln southerndistrict, home to large numbers of people with Turkish and Arabic roots.

The protesters shouted “Boycott Israel” and threw paving stones and bottlesat the police, leading to several arrests.

Other protests were held in Frankfurt, Leipzig and Hamburg.

On Tuesday, Israeli flags were burnt in front of two synagogues in Bonn andMuenster.

Police officers used tear gas and water cannon in Paris to try and dispersea pro-Palestinian rally held despite a ban by authorities.

Some threw stones or tried to set up roadblocks with construction barriers,but for the most part police pursued groups across the district whilepreventing any march toward the Place de la Bastille as planned.

“You want to prohibit me from showing solidarity with my people, even as myvillage is being bombed?” Mohammed, 23 and wearing a “Free Palestine”t-shirt, told AFP.

The march was banned Thursday over concerns of a repeat of fierce clashesthat erupted at a similar Paris march during the last war in 2014, whenprotesters took aim at synagogues and other Israeli and Jewish targets.

No incidents were reported as thousands of people gathered for protests andmarches in several other cities including Montpellier, Toulouse andBordeaux.

Around 500 people rallied in Athens, AFP correspondents said. Greek policeused water cannon and there were minor scuffles with protesters in front ofthe Israeli embassy. -APP/AFP