RABAT, Dec  24, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Protesters marched Sunday through

Morocco's capital in support of Palestinians, calling for an end to the
Israel-Hamas war which has killed thousands in the Gaza Strip.

The crowd in Rabat of about 10,000 people denounced what protest leaders
called a "war of extermination" as well as the normalisation of relations
between Morocco and Israel.

The protesters were called to the streets by a disparate group of
organisations backing the Palestinian cause, including left-wingers and members
the Islamist Justice and Charity movement.

They marched along Mohammed V Avenue in the heart of the city, beneath
banners declaring "stop the war of extermination in Gaza, stop normalisation".

In 2020, Morocco joined a number of Arab countries in establishing
diplomatic and trade relations with Israel under the US-brokered Abraham
Accords.

As part of the deal, Rabat received US recognition for its claim to
sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

On Mohammed V avenue, numerous protesters wielded banners condemning the
"destruction of hospitals" in Gaza and Israeli settlements in the occupied West
Bank.
Posters called for "free Palestine" and to "save Gaza".
The crowd chanted slogans lauding the "resistance of the Palestinian
people" and directed particular fury at the United States for its support of
Israel's war against Hamas.

"When you bomb massively without distinction between military targets and
civilians, including babies -- that is a genocide. We must call a spade a
spade," said Jihane, a 27-year-old protester.

The war in Gaza was sparked by the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas
militants against southern Israel.

The militants killed around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an
AFP tally using Israeli figures. Hamas also took about 250 hostages, 129 of
whom remain in Gaza according to Israel.

Israel responded with a massive retaliatory air and ground offensive on the
Gaza Strip, aimed at destroying Hamas. That campaign has killed more than
20,400 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in
the Hamas-run territory.

In Rabat, Hachimi Damni, a 62-year-old protester, said he had come to
express his opposition to the bombing in Gaza and normalisation with Israel.

Public expressions of opposition to the Abraham Accords had been rare
before the war in Gaza.

Yet it is now a regular feature of the multiple large protests that have
swept Morocco since October 7, with demonstrators on Sunday chanting that
normalisation had been "treason".

The North African kingdom has officially denounced what it said was "the
flagrant violations of the provisions of international law" by Israel in its
war against Hamas, but has not given any indication that normalisation with
Israel would be undone.