Thousands took to the streets of Barcelona on Saturday as Spain, Italy and Portugal prepared for large-scale demonstrations denouncing Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Protests in Spain’s two largest cities, Barcelona and Madrid, had been planned weeks earlier, while similar demonstrations in Rome and Lisbon were prompted by anger over Israel’s interception of a humanitarian flotilla that departed from Barcelona in an attempt to break the Gaza blockade.
In Italy, more than two million people joined rallies on Friday during a nationwide general strike in solidarity with Gaza’s residents.
Support for Palestinians has surged across Spain in recent weeks, as its left-wing government intensifies diplomatic pressure against Israel’s far-right administration. Demonstrations targeting an Israeli-owned cycling team disrupted last month’s Spanish Vuelta race, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has described the devastation in Gaza as “genocide,” calling for Israeli teams to be banned from international sporting events.
The renewed protests in Southern Europe come as Hamas said it has accepted parts of a peace proposal put forward by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the two-year war that has devastated Gaza and triggered genocide allegations against Israel.
In Barcelona, families and people of all ages joined the march, waving Palestinian flags and carrying placards reading “Stop the Genocide,” “Gaza hurts me,” and “Hands off the flotilla.”
While demonstrators acknowledged their actions may not influence Israel directly, many said they hoped to inspire broader movements and push European leaders to take a stronger stance.
María Jesús Parra, 63, who traveled an hour to join the march, said she could not stay silent after witnessing what she called “a genocide broadcast live.”
“How can we, as Europeans who lived through the 1940s, watch this happen again?” she said. “No one can claim ignorance now.”
Rallies in Rome, Madrid and Lisbon were scheduled later on Saturday, alongside demonstrations in several other Spanish cities.
The Gaza war began after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Israel’s ensuing military campaign has killed more than 67,000 people and injured nearly 170,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the U.N. and independent observers.