Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide protest on day 15 of Israeli invasion of Gaza

All over the world, in hundreds of cities, protesters took to the streets on Saturday to call for an end to Israeli aggression in Gaza.

Over 50,000 people gathered in below-freezing temperatures in London to march to the Israeli embassy where they were met and attacked by riot police. At least 30,000 marched in Paris, 30,000 more in Barcelona, Spain, and over 20,000 in Jakarta, Indonesia. In Washington DC, 15,000 people marched through the freezing rain to demand the US government end their support for Israel's occupation. In Duisburg, Germany, over 10,000 people marched.

According to the Associated Press, large protests were held in multiple cities in Germany, Sweden, Scotland, Belgium, Italy, Austria, France, England, Norway, Canada, Greece, Hong Kong, Algeria, Lebanon and in nearly each of the fifty states of the United States of America.

In Boston, a dozen protesters were arrested when they conducted a sit-in in the lobby of the Israeli consulate, while hundreds chanted in solidarity outside, after marching with home-made coffins in downtown Boston in a silent funeral procession to join protests around the world against Israel's military aggression in Gaza. Catherine Hoffman from the Cambridge-Bethlehem People-to-People Project, told a Boston Indymedia reporter, “people who see Israel as the victim here, can see the power, absolute power that Israel wields in Palestine, not just now in terms of the killing, but everyday in terms of the occupation.”

In Scotland, protesters hurled shoes at the Israeli consulate, in solidarity with the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush several weeks ago.

In San Francisco, over 3,000 people marched to the Civic Center, and faced off with a couple hundred counter-demonstrators supporting the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Police attacked the massive march in Paris, France, and cordoned off a section of the protesters. They arrested 180 people in the sweep. Hundreds of others suffered from tear gas inhalation, when police attacked the protest using so-called 'non-lethal' weapons.

In the London protest, one participant reported that, “at around a quarter to 5, five more officers with cameras appeared on the balcony to the left of the embassy gates. Shortly after, mass panic broke out as police pushed the crowd, causing those already densely packed to be crushed. People all over were crying out in pain and desperation. It became very difficult to breath. Some became hysterical with panic. There was no way out. The crowd around me started to shout 'Back Off' in desperation. I soon realised that if I carried on shouting I would have passed out. There was no air. Riot police stood behind the barrier on the pavement doing nothing. Suddenly the barriers at the edge of the road gave way. People tripped and fell. It became apparent that people were trapped under the barriers.” Police arrested 15 people during their attack on the London protest. Two of them are being charged with felony 'assault on a police officer'.

Participants in the Portland, Oregon protest, who's numbers topped nearly 1,000, waved dozens of Palestinian flags and chanted “Resistance is justified, when people are occupied”. The march was led by a 13-year old Palestinian girl who shouted “Free free our land”, followed by hundreds of teenagers, families, adults and children.

Protesters in each of the cities vowed that Saturday's marches and rallies will not be the last, as long as Israel continues its brutal assault on the imprisoned and besieged civilian population of the Gaza Strip.