Thousands of Palestinian supporters demonstrate in Montreal against Israel’s military actions

Several thousand Palestinian supporters marched in downtown Montreal on Saturday to denounce Israel’s recent military violence in the Palestinian territories this week.

The protest started at Lafontaine Park as crowds marched through the downtown streets, making their way to the Israeli consulate in Westmount Square.

READ MORE: Israeli military says it bombed home of top Hamas leader as violence in Gaza continues

Accompanied by riot police, people honked horns, waved Palestinian flags, chanted and held up pro-Palestine, anti-Israel signs that read “free Palestine,” “end the occupation,” “boycott Israel,” “stop killing Palestinian children,” and more.

“We have to make people know what’s going on there,” one demonstrator told Global News.

Jewish Canadian advocacy organization CIJA told Global News that part of the problem is that the issue gets simplified on social media.

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“I see posts that say this is not a complex issue — ‘this is very simple, there are good guys and bad guys, there are oppressors and the oppressed,'” said CIJA spokesperson Adir Krafman.

Krafman said that that is far from the truth. “This is one of the most complex geopolitical problems that we have in the world.”

This comes as the latest outburst of violence started in Jerusalem and spread across the region over the past week.

2:13 Israeli airstrike in Gaza destroys highrise building housing media offices, residents

READ MORE: ‘Terrified for our children’: Palestinians flee as heavy fire continues near Gaza City

Since Monday night, Gaza’s ruling militant group Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, which has pounded the Gaza Strip with strikes.

In Gaza, at least 145 people have been killed, including 41 children and 23 women; in Israel, eight people have been killed, including a man killed by a rocket that hit Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, on Saturday.

There were also widespread Palestinian protests Friday in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 people.

Similar demonstrations to Montreal’s were held in Paris, London, Brussels, Rome and Madrid on Saturday.

–with files from The Associated Press

3:01 What’s behind the latest violence between Israelis and Palestinians?

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• Death toll rises as Israel and Hamas launch bombs and rockets
• A closer look at what it will take to broker peace in the Middle East
• Israel says Hamas buildings targeted as airstrikes pound Gaza on Eid morning
• Israel and Gaza escalate toward war

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