Multination Protests Mark War's 100th Day

From Berlin to London and Limassol to Karachi, thousands of people took to the streets Sunday to mark the 100th day of the Israel-Hamas war. Opposing demonstrations either demanded the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas or called for a cease-fire in Gaza. In the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, tens of thousands waved Palestinian flags or wore the keffiyeh, the traditional Palestinian scarf, to express solidarity with Palestinians in a rally organized by the country's largest religious political party, Jamaat-e-Islami. The party's Karachi chief called on the US to stop backing Israel and compensate Palestinians for their losses, the AP reports. Hafiz Naeem Ur Rehman criticized Muslim leaders and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation for not doing enough to help stop the war. "Resolutions will not solve this problem," Rehman said.

In the British capital, thousands of people chanted "Bring them home now!" in a demonstration to demand the freedom of 132 remaining hostages taken by Hamas militants in the Oct. 7 attacks that killed some 1,200 Israelis and touched off the war. Protesters in London held posters with photos and the words "100 days in hell" to express solidarity with Israel. Ayelet Svatitzky, the sister of a hostage who remains in captivity, warned that "there is no more time" for those captured and called for their release. "I don't know how long he can hold on, and I don't know what his condition is,'" she said. Nadav Popplewell, 51, is one of two UK nationals who remain hostages.

On Cyprus' southern coastline outside the town of Limassol, several hundred protesters waved Palestinian flags and held placards outside the entrance of a British air force base calling for a "Free Palestine" and an end to the "siege of Gaza." Protesters handed authorities at RAF Akrotiri a petition demanding an end to the use of the base as a launchpad for airstrikes in Gaza and Yemen, per the AP. In neighboring Turkey, about 2,000 marchers waved Palestinian and Turkish flags in Istanbul while paying homage to nine Turkish soldiers who were killed in northern Iraq last week.

(More Israel-Hamas war stories.)