Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters rallied in the streets of Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and other cities in the United States to demand an end to the deadly Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

In Los Angeles on Saturday, demonstrators waved signs that said “Free Palestine” blocked traffic on the main passage, while in New York, large crowds marched through Brooklyn, chanting “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea”. , Palestine will be free.”

“I’m here because I want the lives of Palestinians to be equal to the lives of Israelis, but I don’t want that today.” Emraan Khan, 35, a corporate strategist from Manhattan, in Brooklyn Said while waving the Palestinian flag during a protest. .

He added: “When you have a state with nuclear weapons and another state with rocky villagers, obviously who should be blamed.”

Alison Zambrano, a 20-year-old student from the neighboring state of Connecticut who was demonstrating, said: “Palestinians have the right to live freely and should not kill children in the Gaza Strip.” And 73-year-old Mashhour Ahmad (Mashhour Ahmad) Palestine People urged US President Joe Biden to “stop supporting the murder.”

Ahmed said: “Support the victims and stop the oppression,” he described the Israeli military’s violence against the Palestinians as “genocide.”

During a demonstration in Washington on Saturday, May 15, 2021, militants supporting the Palestinian rally were held at the National Archives [Jose Luis Magana/ AP]

Protesters are angry at the six-day violence that has killed at least 145 Palestinians in Gaza and 10 Israelis.

A few hours before the march, Israel intensified its attack on Gaza, killing a family of ten in a refugee camp, and razing the buildings of Al Jazeera and Associated Press offices.

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders showed no signs of backing down, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to continue the offensive against Gaza “when necessary,” and Hamas leader Ismail Hani Ya (Ismail Haniya) said, “Resistance will not give in.”

The U.S. march also coincided with Nakba Day, what the Palestinians call a “catastrophe”, which commemorates the displacement of thousands of Palestinians since Israel declared independence in 1948.

In San Francisco, the noisy crowd yelled, yelling “Palestine will be free”, while in Boston, demonstrators walked to the Israeli consulate for New England and blocked traffic. A similar scene occurred.

Video footage on social media showed the protesters standing on the awning of the building where the consulate was located, using the colors of the Palestinian flag to cast a banner with the words “Palestine” on it.

In Washington, DC, thousands of protesters flowed from the Washington Monument to the National Archives, while in Philadelphia, demonstrators crowded Rittenhouse Square to condemn US support for Israel.

At the same time, a speaker at the Pittsburgh rally called on American lawmakers to restrict how Israel can use Washington’s aid.

Pro-Palestinian supporters protested against the conflict between Israel and Gaza. The two sides will be in Brooklyn, New York, USA on May 15, 2021 during the days of constant conflict. [Rashid Umar Abbasi/Reuters]

Al Jazeera’s John Hendren reported in Washington, D.C., calling Saturday’s rally in support of the Palestinian cause “extraordinarily large.”

Henderen said: “The demonstrators hope that the U.S. government will exert greater pressure on Israel to end this conflict.”

“People do feel dissatisfied, thinking that the policies of the Biden administration are not very different from those of the Trump administration or any other U.S. government in the past few years.”

During the violence and rally, Biden called Netanyahu on Saturday and reiterated that “he firmly supports Israel’s right to defend itself from rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza.”

The White House added on Twitter that the U.S. leader also had a dialogue with Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas and “expressed a commitment to strengthen the U.S.-Pakistan partnership.”

Phyllis Bennis, a political analyst at the American Policy Research Institute, expressed concern about Biden’s failure to “put any pressure on Israel to stop the massacre in Gaza”.

“This is a very familiar situation. In this case, the United States seems to take the lead when Israel is preparing for a ceasefire. Netanyahu has made it clear that he is not yet ready for a ceasefire,” she told Al Jazeera. She said that US policy is “very dangerous.”