SYRIA: Hundreds of thousands demonstrate against Israel's Gaza attack, some clash with police

Record ID: 279479

  • Title: SYRIA: Hundreds of thousands demonstrate against Israel's Gaza attack, some clash with police
  • Date: 9th January 2009
  • Summary: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (JANUARY 8, 2009) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL): RIOT POLICE LINING THE STREET POLICE RIOT POLICE DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING FLAGS ATTEMPT TO PUSH THROUGH LINE OF RIOT POLICE/ POLICE WIELD BATONS DEMONSTRATORS BREAKING THROUGH POLICE LINE DEMONSTRATORS WALKING THROUGH CLOUDS OF TEAR GAS RED CRESCENT WORKERS HELPING OUT DEMONSTRATOR AFFECTED BY TEAR GAS RED CRESCENT TAKI
  • Embargoed: 24th January 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA3363LDLEOEVI13VGHO93J1Z73
  • Story Text: Hundreds of thousands of protesters take to the streets in Damascus to protest against Israel's military offensive in Gaza.
    Hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Palestinians took to the streets in Damascus on Thursday (January 7) to take part in a government-organised rally to condemn the Israeli attack on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
    The rally was the biggest in Syria since Israel began pounding Gaza on Dec. 27.
    Demonstrators held Palestinian and Syrian flags and shouted and chanted slogans against Israel, the UN Security Council and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
    Mubarak is widely condemned by people throughout Arab countries for not taking a strong stance against Israel and refusing to open the Rafah crossing with Gaza.
    As the demonstration came to an end, a couple of hundred of protesters headed to Egyptian Embassy where police used tear gas to disperse them.
    There were no reports of serious injuries.
    The total of Palestinian deaths in Gaza since December 27 rose on Thursday to at least 661 -- the bloodiest episode in decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
    U.N. officials have said a quarter of the Palestinian dead were civilians, while other accounts put that proportion higher.
    Ten Israelis have died in the past 13 days, seven of them soldiers, including four killed by "friendly" fire.
    A European-Egyptian ceasefire proposal is being studied by both Israel and Hamas which addresses Israel's demand that the militant group be prevented from rearming, as well as Hamas's call for an end to Israel's economic blockade of the Gaza Strip.
    European governments have offered to back the Egyptian ceasefire proposal with an EU border force that would prevent Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, from rearming.
    Hamas called off a six-month ceasefire late last month, accusing Israel of breaking an agreement to ease supplies.
    END
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