Protesters in Paris show solidarity with Palestine during Olympic cycling competition

Protesters on Paris streets showed solidarity Saturday with Palestine during an Olympic cycling road competition, Anadolu news agency reported.

As cyclists passed the 20th arrondissement of Paris, demonstrators displayed Palestinian flags and some wore keffiyehs and scarves. The keffiyeh is a well-known symbol of Palestinian nationalism.

Protesters wearing t-shirts in the colours of the Palestinian flag chanted: “Free Palestine.”

The French gendarme, who wanted demonstrators to remove their Palestinian flags, waited behind activists throughout the race.

Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the Place de la Nation to demand that Israel stop its attacks against the Gaza Strip, which have continued for nearly 10 months.

The demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and banners with pictures of children killed in Israeli attacks.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since a 7 October, 2023 attack by Hamas.

Nearly 39,500 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 91,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

Almost 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on 6 May.

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