Protesters demand end to bloodshed

Nearly 20,000 people marched through southern Lebanon on Saturday to protest against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, as thousands also took to the streets in several European cities to show their anger.

Protests held around world against Israeli offensive in Gaza Strip Protests held around world against Israeli offensive in Gaza Strip

Similar protests have occurred almost daily in the Middle East and elsewhere since Israel launched its operation more than two weeks ago to stop rocket fire from the militant Palestinian group Hamas.

The demonstrations have been fuelled by the rising death toll in Gaza, which currently stands at over 800 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis have also died in the fighting.

The rally in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh was organised by the militant Hezbollah group, a strong ally of Hamas that fought its own war with Israel in the summer of 2006.

The thousands of demonstrators who marched through the streets waved Lebanese and Palestinian flags and some carried posters of bloody Palestinian children. "Gaza is the nation's battle," read a banner carried by several of the protesters.

Thousands of people also protested in several cities across Europe, with the largest crowds in Germany, where some 20,000 took to the streets in Berlin and two other cities.

An estimated 8,500 rallied at Berlin's Alexanderplatz and then marched to the city's main train station. Some 10,000 people also marched in the western city of Duisburg, calling for an immediate end to the violence and a lifting of the blockade of Gaza. They carried signs with slogans such as "Freedom for Palestine" and "Down with the murdering of children".

Thousands of demonstrators in Edinburgh gathered tossed shoes at the American consulate and in London, about 12,000 demonstrators rallied in Hyde Park in support of the Palestinian cause.

The London protest saw a police officer knocked unconscious and two others receive facial injuries.

Saturday's protests were largely peaceful, but more than 60 people were injured during a large demonstration the previous day in Algeria's capital, many by stone throwing, the Interior Ministry said.

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