Thousands of Germans in Berlin protest, call for end to Israel-Hamas war in Gaza

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Berlin, the German capital, on Saturday in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas conflict in the war-devastated enclave.

Demonstrators shouted slogans like “free, free Palestine,” and demanded an end to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Some 50,000 people took part in the march through Berlin’s downtown area, according to police. About 1,800 law enforcement officers were deployed to monitor the demonstrators.

The protesters also called for a halt to German arms exports to Israel and demanded European Union sanctions against Israel, German news agency dpa reported.

Germany is one of Israel's leading foreign suppliers of military hardware, along with the US and Italy. In August, Berlin halted military exports to Israel for use in Gaza amid outcry over Netanyahu's plan for a renewed offensive, which Israel has since begun.

Protests in Berlin on Saturday reportedly began from Alexanderplatz, with demonstrators marching to the Victory Column in the Tiergarten district of Berlin.

Around 50 organisations and associations had called for the demonstration, including Amnesty International and the party Die Linke. One of the protests, a pro-Palestine demonstration in Kreuzberg, was, however, broken up due to anti-Israel slogans.

In a separate protest, about 100 people rallied in favour of Israel and “against all forms of antisemitism,” German public broadcaster RBB reported, adding that there were isolated scuffles when the two protest groups met. It wasn’t immediately clear if the scuffles were between the different protesters or with police trying to separate them.

Protests took place simultaneously in other EU cities

Several thousand people also protested in the western German city of Düsseldorf under the slogan “we will not forget Gaza — freedom for Palestine and all oppressed peoples.”

In Geneva, about 6,000 people demonstrated for an end to the war in Gaza, Swiss public broadcaster SRF reported. Other European cities have also seen Gaza protests in recent weeks.

The 7 October 2023 strike on southern Israel by Hamas set off the war in Gaza. Hamas terrorists killed almost 1,200 people in the attack, primarily civilians, and kidnapped 251. Israel believes that 20 of the 48 hostages that are still in Gaza are alive.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive over the past 23 months has killed more than 65,100 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and Hamas fighters.

Germany has led efforts among the EU’s 27 member nations to block collective criticism of or efforts to stop Israel’s blockade of Gaza and military campaign, but the German government has recently shown some scepticism about its position.

The German government remains deeply concerned about the suffering of civilians in Gaza, Merz said in August when he spoke against Israel's plan for a renewed offensive in Gaza.