Photo: AFP.
The defense ministers of the United States and Israel held a telephone conversation about military operations in the Gaza Strip, the Pentagon reported, while hundreds of people summoned by a Jewish organization were detained in New York during a protest calling for an end to the operations. bombings in the Palestinian enclave.
“Secretary of Defense LLoyd Austin spoke this Saturday with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to discuss Israel’s operations in Gaza”the Pentagon reported late Friday.
“The secretary stressed the importance of protecting civilians during Israel Defense Forces operations and focusing on the urgency of delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza. He also highlighted the need for Hamas to release all hostages,” holds the note, which was picked up by the Russian news agency Sputnik.
Meanwhile, Police reported that they arrested more than 200 people on Friday night who occupied Grand Central Stationone of New York’s main train stations, to call for an end to the bombing in the Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of people convened by the Jewish Voice for Peace organization They took over the large lobby of the famous station during rush hour, one of the main train and subway communication nodes in the Big Apple, to call for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, in the midst of the intensification of the Israeli military offensive.
Security forces closed the station doors and cordoned off the surrounding area, while an officer with a megaphone asked protesters who had blocked traffic outside the station on 42nd Street to disperse the area or they would be arrested.
Shortly after, the uniformed officers arrested dozens of protesters, with their hands tied behind their backs, who were filling empty buses arranged by the police around the station, the AFP news agency reported.
The police reported that The people “in preventive detention are more than 200”, although he did not specify an exact number.
According to the organizers, “300 people were arrested”in what they called the “largest civil disobedience that New York City has experienced in 20 years.”
The conveners pointed out that The actress and activist Indya Moore, the documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, and elected legislators from the state parliament and the mayor’s office, joined the protest to call for an end to the Israeli Army’s bombing of the Gaza Strip.
“I am here in solidarity with my Jewish brothers in support of the Palestinians (…) to raise our collective voice of dissent and demonstrate en masse that it is morally irrefutable that we need a ceasefire now and a call to end the genocide of Palestinians,” Moore said.
The rabbis began the sit-in by lighting candles for Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, and reciting prayers in honor of the dead.
“Although Shabbat is usually a day of rest, we cannot afford to rest while a genocide unfolds in our names,” stated Rabbi May Ye, quoted in the JVP statement.
“The lives of Palestinians and Israelis are intertwined, and security can only come from justice, equality and freedom for all,” he added.
“Free Palestine”, “Cease fire now”, “Let Gaza live”, “Jews refuse to be complicit in this genocide” were some of the slogans shouted by protesters or printed on their banners.
Photo: AFP.
While on the ground the Israeli army prepares the invasion of Gaza, the UN General Assembly approved on Friday a resolution calling for “an immediate durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to the cessation of hostilities” in Gaza, with 120 votes in favor , 45 abstentions and 14 against, among them the United States and Israel.
The war began on October 7 with the raid of commandos from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas who, according to Israel, killed more than 1,400 people in the south of the country, mostly civilians, and took 220 hostages to Gaza.
In response, Israel launched a campaign of relentless bombing, which Hamas says has left more than 8,000 dead, including more than 3,000 children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
2023-10-28 14:57:51
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