GAZA/RIO DE JANEIRO: An Israeli strike killed 10 Palestinians and wounded at least 20 others on Saturday at a school in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp currently sheltering displaced families, medics said on Saturday.

The UN-run Abu Assi school, where rescue operations are ongoing, may still have people trapped under the rubble, health officials said. There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.

The Israeli military reported later on Saturday that two rockets fired at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip were intercepted.

The launches show the ability of Hamas to fire rockets into Israel despite more than 13 months of an aerial and ground offensive that turned vast land in the enclave into wasteland and displaced most of the 2.3 million population.

Protesters hold pro-Palestinian march ahead of G20 summit

Palestinian health officials said at least 30 people have been killed by Israeli military strikes across the enclave on Saturday.

The Gaza health ministry said 43,799 people have been confirmed dead since Oct 7, 2023.

‘Break Brazil-Israel Relations’

Hundreds of protesters marched in support of Palestinians in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, in a demonstration aimed at world leaders about to converge on the city for a G20 summit.

The march, held peacefully under constant rain along Copacabana Beach, was watched by several police and soldiers deployed as security for the summit to be held on Monday and Tuesday.

The meeting will see heads of state and government, including US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, discuss coordination on international issues.

The Rio protesters, a few wearing Arabic keffiyeh scarves, held aloft the Palestinian flag and banners, including one reading “Break Brazil-Israel Relations” and demands that Israeli allies stop financing its military offensives in Gaza and in Lebanon.

“We’re here to make a contrast with the G20 summit,” said Tania Arantes, 60, from one of the Brazilian unions organising the protest.

She said the march embraced a number of other leftist issues too, such as climate change, the fight against poverty and a demand to tax the super-rich, because the leaders at the summit “have economic control over nations they believe are subordinate in this globalised world.”

One marcher, Giancarlo Pereira, a 43-year-old veterinarian, said the multiple leftist issues converged with the Palestinian cause “because the big companies fueling the war (being conducted by Israel in Gaza) are the billionaires of the world.” A short distance along Copacabana Beach, another protest was being staged with activists placing rows of plates with red crosses on them in the sand.

The 733 plates laid out represented the 733 million people in the world the UN says suffered from hunger last year.

Another demonstration was to take place in Rio later on Saturday organised by a Brazilian Indigenous umbrella group, the Articulation of Indigenous People of Brazil, to underline a perceived lack of effort by rich countries to combat climate change.

The various protests were taking place as activists, NGOs and civil society bodies took part in a pre-summit G20 Social event in Rio promoted by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Lula was to receive a list of action points drawn up by that event to help inform summit discussions on Monday and Tuesday. Headline talks to take place at the summit include an initiative by Lula for a Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, and international efforts to mitigate global warming.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2024