Protesters in Rome and Lisbon call for Middle East ceasefire

Hundreds of demonstrators have marched through central Rome to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Chanting ‘Free, Free Palestine’ they also demanded an end to the fighting in Lebanon which has seen an uptick in hostilities in recent weeks.

“We as students feel that we must take to the streets to continue to demand a ceasefire and to continue to demand freedom, to demand that our government should protect from not only when UN bases are attacked but when there are women, men and children under the bombs for no real reason but only because of the madness of Netanyahu who pursues a policy of hatred,” said one of the demonstrators, Pietro Marchioncini.

Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah have traded almost daily fire since the war in Gaza broke out in October, displacing thousands on both sides of the border.

Those hostilities have ramped up in recently with both sides striking targets deeper inside each other’s countries.

On Saturday at a meeting of the MED9 group of southern EU countries, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Spanish counterpart Pedro Sánchez joined with Emmanuel Macron to condemn what the French president called Israel’s “deliberate targeting” of soldiers belonging to a UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL.

UN sources said that Israeli troops opened fire at three positions held by UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday.

France, Spain and Italy all contribute troops to UNIFIL.

“I can’t avoid going back and condemning what happened. It is not acceptable. It violates the provisions of UN Resolution 1701. The Italian government, as you know, has strongly protested to the Israeli authorities,” Meloni said.

Meanwhile, on 30 September, Israel launched what it called a targeted ground operation in Lebanon, it says to find and eliminate Hezbollah positions.

It’s believed there could be up to 15,000 Israeli soldiers inside Lebanon.

Protests in Portugal

There were similar scenes in the Portuguese capital Lisbon where thousands marched calling for an end to the hostilities in Gaza and criticising what they say is the complicity of Western governments who sell arms to Israel.

The war in Gaza broke out on 7 October last year after the militant group Hamas launched a lightning incursion into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 others back to the Strip as hostages.

The Israeli military response was almost immediate and has devastated Gaza. The UN said in August that around 80% of all buildings in the Strip had been destroyed.

That’s sparked a massive humanitarian catastrophe with tens of thousands of Gazans internally displaced, often living in squalid tent camps with little to no access to food, fresh water and medical facilities.

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The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 42,000 people have been killed in just over a year of fighting but it doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its tally.