Hundreds gather in support of Palestinians at Mississauga rally as Israel prepares Gaza offensive | CBC News
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Hundreds of people gathered in Mississauga, Ont., on Saturday in support of Palestinians, as the Israeli military prepares to launch a co-ordinated offensive in Gaza using air, ground and naval forces in response to a deadly attack by Hamas militants a week ago.
Crowds chanted “Free, free Palestine,” while cars could be heard honking their horns as they passed. Protesters, many with connections to Gaza, filled Celebration Square.
Nehad Abu Helal, who grew up in the occupied West Bank, said he knows what it’s like to live in the presence of the Israeli military.
“Life is miserable. I cannot describe it. I lived it, I seen it myself,” Abu Helal said. “I’m against killing civilian people from either side…. But I’m against occupation. I want this occupation to end.”
The rally was one of many taking place across North America and around the world this weekend in support of Palestinian people. Canada also saw a wave of pro-Palestinian protests after Israel formally declared war last Sunday following Hamas’s surprise attack in Israel.
Saturday’s protest took place as Palestinians struggled to flee from areas of Gaza targeted by Israeli airstrikes, while grappling with a growing shortage of food, water and medical supplies ahead of an expected ground offensive.
Israel has dropped leaflets from the air and used social media as it calls on some one million Gaza Strip residents living in the north to move south to avoid the coming offensive, while Hamas has urged people to stay in their homes.
The United Nations and aid groups said a rapid exodus at this scale, representing nearly half the population of Gaza, would cause untold human suffering.
Shatha Mahmoud, of the grassroots group Palestine Youth Movement, said people attended Saturday’s rally “to demand the end of the siege on Gaza.”
“This is their land,” Mahmoud said, referring to Palestinians. “They shouldn’t have to leave.”
Abu Helal said Palestinians “need our own state to live in peace, side by side” with Israelis.
“We need to live in dignity and in self-determination,” he said.
Hamas’s surprise attack on Oct. 7 killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, most of them civilians, the government said. It also said 1,500 Hamas fighters involved in the initial border breach were killed within Israel’s borders.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a report on Saturday that at least 2,269 Palestinians have been killed and 9,814 others wounded due to Israeli attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The death toll included 2,215 from Gaza, with 8,714 injured. The other 54 dead and 1,100 wounded were from the West Bank, the report said.
Featured VideoIsrael told 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza within 24 hours, ahead of a seemingly imminent ground invasion. The United Nations says the massive evacuation will be ‘impossible’ without ‘devastating humanitarian consequences.’ Andrew Chang examines the difficulty of the undertaking.
Protesters implore Canada to support Palestinians
An independent UN Human Rights commission last year found that Israel has continued to occupy Gaza despite disengaging in 2005, by effectively controlling movement in and out of its borders and the supply of essentials like water and electricity.
Mahmoud said she’d like to see the federal government display a sentiment similar to those on the ground in Mississauga.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered an unequivocal condemnation of the atrocities committed by Hamas gunmen against men, women and children in southern Israel last weekend, and declared Israel’s “right to defend itself in accordance with international law.”
He also condemned the pro-Hamas sentiment that reportedly was being expressed at some protests and rallies across the country.
“They [Israel] have committed multiple human rights violations against international law, and there has been not a single condemnation,” Mahmoud said, adding that she wants Ottawa to sanction Israel.
Abu Helal held a similar view.
“The reactions of the Canadian government are pro-Israel, and their opinion [is] all the way with Israel without having a balance,” he said.
“I want the Canadian government and the Canadian politicians to put their feet [in] the Palestinian shoes.”
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