RAMALLAH, SARAJEVO: Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on Sunday on the international community to create “united front” to stop Israel’s attacks in the Gaza Strip.
“We place at the top of our priorities stopping the Israeli aggression and bringing in medical and relief aid to prevent a major humanitarian catastrophe,” Shtayyeh said during a meeting with 25 ambassadors, representatives and consuls.
Meanwhile, several thousand people gathered in Sarajevo city center on Sunday, waving Palestinian and Bosnian flags and demanding a halt to the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Some chanted: “Genocide, genocide,” while a large and prominent banner read “Yesterday Srebrenica, today Gaza,” referring to the 1995 massacre in the Bosnian town, Europe’s worst atrocity since World War Two in which Serb forces killed an estimated 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
Other demonstrators held banners with slogans including “Stop the war” and “Free Palestine.”
Regionwide, smaller pro-Palestinian protests took place on Sunday in Belgrade and the Montenegrin capital Podgorica.
Sarajevo Mayor Benjamina Karic told protesters the city knew “how it is to live without water and food and see children being killed,” referring to the 1992-95 siege during which Serb forces killed an estimated 11,000 people in the city including 1,600 children.
Separately, Germany’s chancellor and president strongly denounced a rise in antisemitism in Germany in the wake of the war in separate appearances on Sunday that stressed the same idea that it is unacceptable for such hatred to flourish in the nation that perpetrated the Holocaust.
In Berlin, thousands of people gathered at a demonstration called to show opposition to antisemitism and support for Israel. People carried Israeli flags or posters with photos of some of the people reported to be missing or held by Hamas as hostages.