Massive marches in Rome, Barcelona and Madrid protest Israel’s military campaign in Gaza

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Italians and Spaniards marched in Rome, Barcelona and Madrid on Saturday against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in a massive show of growing international anger over the two-year-old war.

The protests in almost every major Spanish city had been planned for weeks, while the demonstration in Rome followed widespread anger after the Israeli interception of a humanitarian aid flotilla that had set sail from Barcelona in a bid to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.

The protests across Southern Europe come as Hamas said it has accepted some elements of a plan laid out by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the war, which has left Gaza’s largest city in famine and stirred accusations of genocide against Israel.

Rome’s police said 250,000 people turned out, while organizers said 1 million attended, for a second straight day of Italian demonstrations. Italy already saw more than 2 million people rally on Friday in a one-day general strike to support the Palestinians in Gaza.

In Spain, officials said 100,000 people marched in Madrid and another 70,000 filled downtown Barcelona. Organizers of the Madrid march raised attendance to 400,000, while organizers in Barcelona said 300,000 took part.

Spaniards were also called by activists to march in Valencia, Sevilla, Malaga and other cities.

Protests in Rome criticize Meloni

The protest in Rome that followed a route by the Colosseum was organized by three Palestinian organizations along with local unions and students.

At Piazza San Giovanni, protesters chanted and applauded the name of Francesca Albanese, an Italian who is the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories and a vocal critic of Israel.

Although the organizers had requested that only Palestinian flags be carried, there were some banners praising the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas. One read, “October 7, Day of Palestinian Resistance,” a reference to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel that sparked the war, while another large flag read “Death, death to the IDF,” a reference to the Israel Defense Forces. A group also chanted the same slogan, state broadcaster RAI reported.

Opposition lawmaker Riccardo Magi, secretary of the center-left Piu Europa (more Europe) party, who was among the marchers, took Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government to task for its refusal to recognize a Palestinian state, following the example of Spain, France, the U.K. and some other Western countries.

“Meloni cannot continue with this obscene victimhood: these are spontaneous demonstrations against the inaction and complicity of her government. She must acknowledge this and begin working diplomatically for peace,” Magi told Italian media.

Big rally in Barcelona

Spain has seen an upsurge of support for Palestinians in recent weeks while its left-wing government intensifies diplomatic efforts against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government. Protests against the presence of an Israeli-owned cycling team repeatedly disrupted the Spanish Vuelta last month, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the destruction in Gaza a “genocide” and asked for the ban of all Israeli teams from international sporting events.

People packed Barcelona’s wide Passeig de Gracia, the city’s main central boulevard. Many families turned out along with people of all ages, carrying Palestinian flags. Hand-held signs bore messages like “Gaza hurts me,” “Stop the Genocide,” and “Hands off the flotilla.”

Over 40 Spaniards, including a former Barcelona mayor, were among the 450 activists that Israel removed from the flotilla’s boats this week.

While the protests will likely not sway Israel’s government, protesters hope they could inspire other demonstrations and encourage European leaders to take a harder line against Israel.

María Jesús Parra, 63, waved a Palestinian flag after making an hourlong trip from another town to Barcelona. She wants the European Union to act against what she described as the horrors she watches on TV news.

“How is it possible that we are witnessing a genocide happening live after what we (as Europe) experienced in the 1940s?” Parra said. “Now nobody can say they didn’t know what was happening.”

People in Madrid marched behind banners that read “Shame” and “Racist War, Free Palestine,” while chanting “Netanyahu (is a) Killer.”

Smaller rallies took place in Lisbon, Athens and Skopje, North Macedonia, and in London and Manchester, England.

Greek police believe a bigger gathering and march will take place Sunday to coincide with a pro-Israeli one. The two protests are separated by some 3 kilometers (2 miles) and police will be on hand to prevent the pro-Palestinian march to the Israeli Embassy, as as happened on previous occasions.

The war in Gaza started after Hamas’s attack in October 2023, which left around 1,200 people dead, while 251 others were taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has so far killed over 67,000 people and wounded nearly 170,000 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. U.N. agencies and many independent experts view its figures as the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.

___

Santalucia reported from Rome, while Associated Press writer Demetris Nellas in Athens, Greece, contributed to this report.