A world split by Middle East massacre: Western nations show support for Israel – while others desecrate its flag and applaud onslaught in solidarity with Hamas
- The West stands with Israel, while the Arab World is supporting Palestine
- The total death toll is over 1,000 after just two days of fighting
- The attack began after Hamas fighters blitzed into Israel on paragliders
The world has been divided once again by a bloody and brutal conflict, this time in the Middle East, as Palestine and Israel descend into a fight that has claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians in just one weekend.
Nations across the world are watching violence unfold in the region, and appear to have already chosen sides in the conflict, which has so far been the bloodiest weekend in the region for 50 years.
Local media reports that Israel’s death toll has surpassed 600, while Gaza has so far reported at least 370 deaths at time of publication.
The attack began on Saturday morning after Hamas fighters blitzed into Israel on motorised paragliders during a lightning offensive, while thousands of rockets rained down across the south of the country.
Footage showed squads of Palestinians on suicide missions swooping over the border on the aircraft, spreading fear and chaos among cowering families below before landing and opening fire on Israeli civilians and soldiers alike.
Western countries, including the US, Germany and the UK, have shown signs of solidarity with Israel, while much of the Arab world has stood behind Palestine.
In Berlin, Germany, hundreds of supporters gathered by the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of the city on Sunday, many of whom waved Israeli flags in solidarity.
US and Israeli flags have been burned across the world in recent hours
The US has stood in solidarity with Israel, as one of its oldest and staunchest allies
But few in the Arab world agree with the Western position of solidarity with Israel
Hundreds of Germans stood in support of Israel at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany (pictured)
The wall was also lit up with the Israeli flag overnight, shortly after news of the Hamas attack broke.
The gate, once used as a prominent symbol for the Nazi party, now represents freedom in the eyes of Berliners, and has played host to several world leaders, including four US presidents.
Elsewhere in Berlin, the government flew the Israeli flag along side its own flag, as well as the European Union’s flag, next to the Reichstag building, the heart of the federal government in the country.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Schulz, said in a statement earlier today: ‘We are deeply shocked by the rocket fire from Gaza and the escalating violence. Germany condemns these attacks and stands by Israel.’
Elsewhere in Europe, the European Commission’s building was lit up with the Israeli flag overnight, while in the UK, Home Secretary Suella Braverman warned ‘the full force of the law’ will be used against supporters of Hamas and people who ‘intimidate’ Jewish Brits.
The US also showed signs of solidarity with Israel, as one of its oldest and staunchest allies.
New York’s Moynihan Train Hall was lit up with Israel’s flag’s colours last night
The Brandenburg Gate was lit up with the Israeli flag overnight
Activists in Pakistan burned the Israeli and US flags in a bold statement against both countries
Young boys were seen standing on the two flags
Over in Yemen, anti-US sentiment took over and several red, white and blue flags were set alight
Protestors were also seen tearing into Israeli and US flags
The flags were then set alight by angry protestors
New York governor ordered several monuments in New York City, including the Empire State Building and Moynihan Train Hall, to be lit up in blue and while, the colours of Israel’s flag.
‘There is never any justification for terrorism. We stand in solidarity with the government and people of Israel, and extend our condolences for the Israeli lives lost in these attacks,’ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement released by the State Department.
But many across the world have condemned both Israel for its treatment of Palestine over the last few decades, and the US for its continued support of the state.
In Pakistan, supporters of Palestine were seen chanting at a demonstration as protestors burned flags of both the US and Israel.
Several young boys were also seen standing on top of the flag before they were burned, waving their own Palestinian flags.
One man in Beirut was seen holding a banner that read: ‘Your entity will vanish. Your fortifications are made of cardboard. Your army is humiliated and vanquished’
Over in Yemen, Huthi rebels who control the capital expressed their support for ‘the heroic jihadist operation’
Meanwhile, Yemeni supporters of Palestine were seen tearing into US and Israeli flags in a major protest in Sana’a, the country’s capital city.
Jalil Abbas Jilani, the foreign minister of Pakistan, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter: ‘Pakistan is deeply concerned by the escalating hostility in the Middle East and the loss of innocent lives.
‘We stand in solidarity with Palestinians and call for an immediate end to the violence and oppression by Israeli occupation forces.’
Over in Yemen, Huthi rebels who control the capital expressed their support for ‘the heroic jihadist operation’.
In a statement published on the website of the Huthi-controlled SABA news agency, the Iran-aligned militant group said the attack ‘revealed the weakness, fragility and impotence’ of Israel.
Iraq also stood by Palestine, after several people were seen burning both Israeli and US flags in Baghdad
The Iraqi government expressed its support for Gaza and the Palestinian people
Several other pro-Palestine protests were seen in Muslim majority countries, including Turkey and Iran,
Palestine supporters were seen waving flags in Tehran
Neighbouring Lebanon has shown its support for Hamas, the force behind the deadly attack on Saturday, with hundreds of its citizens in Beirut coming together in the streets in solidarity marches.
One man was seen holding a banner that read: ‘Your entity will vanish. Your fortifications are made of cardboard. Your army is humiliated and vanquished’
Israel’s military retaliated to Hezbollah mortars launched from Lebanon with its own missile and mortar strikes from the north of the country.
Iraq also stood by Palestine, after several people were seen burning both Israeli and US flags in Baghdad, the country’s capital city.
The Iraqi government expressed its support for Gaza and the Palestinian people and called the rocket attack on Israel a ‘natural result of the systematic oppression… at the hands of the Zionist occupation authority.’
Palestinian solidarity marches were also held in Tehran, Iran, and Istanbul, Turkey, overnight as citizens of both countries, both of which are majority Muslim, lit flares and waved flags in support of Palestine.
Flares were lit in support of Palestine overnight across Tehran
Hamas Fighters fired some 2,500 missiles into Israel from 7am UK time. As they rained down on major towns, and even as far as Tel Aviv nearly 50 miles away, fighters used explosives to break through the border fence.
Israel as since begun retaliating, striking Gaza and flattening residential buildings in massive explosions, including a 14-storey tower that was home to dozens of families.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today warned that Israel faces a ‘long and difficult war’ with Palestine, telling reporters after a meeting of the country’s security cabinet early on Sunday that it had now begun its ‘offensive phase.’
Netanyahu, 73, claimed that Israel has already destroyed the ‘vast majority of the enemy forces that infiltrated our territory.’
The Israeli ambassador to the UK has said the country’s reality has ‘become a nightmare’ and said its military needs to defend its people.
Tzipi Hotovely told BBC Breakfast: ‘Israel is in a war that Hamas started yesterday. Calculated. Planned. Targeting Israelis, targeting civilians, targeting innocent children.
‘We saw Prime Minister Sunak, we saw President Biden yesterday, they’re supporting Israel’s right for self-defence, because we are in a reality that has become a nightmare.
‘We can’t do anything else… we need to protect our people.
‘This is a necessity war. (Israel) wasn’t expecting this to happen (but) we need to make sure the infrastructure of terrorism is 100 per cent destroyed.’
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