ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Thursday called on Muslims, Arabs, and “all peace lovers” around the world to gather for “peaceful” sit-in protests on the borders with Israel and stay there until the siege on Gaza is lifted.
“The gathering needs to be popular and peaceful, to go for a peaceful sit-in on the Palestinian borders with Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, without any weapons but shrouds, and stay there until the siege is lifted and deliver enough for our people in Gaza, north and south,” said Sadr in a televised address.
The cleric said that the time of the protests will be announced later, without the interference of any governments or militaries.
Tens of thousands of Sadr supporters gathered at Baghdad’s Tahrir Square for “million-man” protests last week, in a mass display of solidarity with the Palestinian people in the wake of the escalation of violence in Gaza.
Sadr called for the preparation of an aid convoy of food and water to be sent to the civilians in Gaza, after coordinating with either Syria or Egypt.
An aid convoy of 20 trucks piled up near the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Friday, following a deal struck between US President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdul Fatah al-Sisi to open the corridor in order to allow the delivery of food, water, and medicine to civilians in the strip.
After the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement launched a surprise attack against Israel on October 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to turn all Hamas-associated locations into “islands of ruins,” and called on the residents of Gaza to evacuate before Israel intensifies its operations.
Israel cut off the supply of food, water, and electricity to the Gaza Strip on October 9.
At least 3,785 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli offensives in less than two weeks of the most recent chapter in the saga of the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Over one million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced due to the recent escalation.
“The gathering needs to be popular and peaceful, to go for a peaceful sit-in on the Palestinian borders with Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, without any weapons but shrouds, and stay there until the siege is lifted and deliver enough for our people in Gaza, north and south,” said Sadr in a televised address.
The cleric said that the time of the protests will be announced later, without the interference of any governments or militaries.
Tens of thousands of Sadr supporters gathered at Baghdad’s Tahrir Square for “million-man” protests last week, in a mass display of solidarity with the Palestinian people in the wake of the escalation of violence in Gaza.
Sadr called for the preparation of an aid convoy of food and water to be sent to the civilians in Gaza, after coordinating with either Syria or Egypt.
An aid convoy of 20 trucks piled up near the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Friday, following a deal struck between US President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdul Fatah al-Sisi to open the corridor in order to allow the delivery of food, water, and medicine to civilians in the strip.
After the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement launched a surprise attack against Israel on October 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to turn all Hamas-associated locations into “islands of ruins,” and called on the residents of Gaza to evacuate before Israel intensifies its operations.
Israel cut off the supply of food, water, and electricity to the Gaza Strip on October 9.
At least 3,785 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli offensives in less than two weeks of the most recent chapter in the saga of the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Over one million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced due to the recent escalation.
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