Tens of thousands of Syrians filled the central square of Damascus Monday to protest ongoing Israel Defense Forces operations in the Gaza Strip that have killed more than 100 Palestinians, while elsewhere in the region thousands others also demonstrated.
The Syrians chanted slogans against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and called on Arab leaders to take a tough stand on U.S. support for Israel as it continues its air and ground offensive against Palestinians in Gaza.
"With soul and blood we sacrifice ourselves for you Palestine," the crowd
shouted in central Damascus, waving Syrian and Palestinian flags and carrying pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad. They also carried pictures of Palestinian children killed by Israeli attacks.
The offensive, which Israel says is in response to Palestinian rocket attacks, has left over 100 Palestinians dead since the fighting erupted last Wednesday.
The Gaza attacks have been denounced by many Arab governments, while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has suspended peace talks with Israel.
Some of the protesters' banners read in Arabic: No to Arab silence, Save the children of Gaza, Stop the bloodshed in Gaza, Death to America and Death to Israel. They burned a mock Israeli flag.
The march was organized by Syrian parties and civil society organizations, and clearly approved by the government. Students and civil servants joined the march from several parts of the capital. Anti-riot police deployed around foreign embassies in Damascus to prevent attacks.
In Lebanon, about 2,000 students, supporters of the militant Hezbollah group, demonstrated outside the UN building in downtown Beirut Monday to protest the Israeli attacks in Gaza.
Carrying Lebanese and Palestinian flags and pictures of Hezbollah leader
Hassan Nasrallah, the students, aged between seven and 15, shouted Death to Israel and Death to America. They carried pamphlets denouncing the massacres in Gaza and calling for world action to stop the Israeli attacks.
In Egypt, about 2,000 students demonstrated in al-Azhar University in the
southern Egyptian town of Assiut led by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, praising the Hamas movement which control's the Gaza Strip and lashing out at the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Another thousand students demonstrated on Cairo University's campus.
Hundreds of riot police deployed inside and outside both universities to
ensure the demonstrations did not reach the streets. The Israeli embassy is only a few hundred yards from Cairo University.
Elsewhere in Cairo, a group of Egyptian parliamentarians planned a rally in front the presidential palace in downtown Cairo to present a memo to President Hosni Mubarak, condemning the Israeli attacks on Gaza, but security forces prevented them from leaving the from the People's Assembly, the Brotherhood Web site said.
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