Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through Madrid on Saturday to demand a ceasefire in war-torn Gaza and a severing of ties between Spain and Israel.

Numbering around 4,000 according to the authorities, protesters held up banners and signs condemning a “genocide” in Gaza and lauding the
“resistance” of the Palestinian people.

Palestinians have been “crammed” in southern Gaza and “now they are displaced again from one place to another while there are no more safe places”, said 57-year-old Jaldia Abubakra, referring to Israeli evacuation orders in the city of Rafah.

Around 30 organisations called for the rally before the 76th anniversary of what Palestinians call the “Nakba” (“catastrophe”), when 760,000 people fled their homes during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation.