NEW DELHI: Over 50 individuals were detained by the Delhi Police on Friday from Jantar Mantar where they had assembled to hold a demonstration in solidarity with Palestine. According to the police, no permission was given to the protestors to hold the demonstration at the iconic site.
“We have come here to raise a voice for those innocent children who are in hospital as Israel has dropped bombs on them. The whole world is acting as a mute spectator. But we will not tolerate this atrocity,” one of the protestors said while speaking to this newspaper.
The protestors arrived in batches, carrying Palestinian flags. When they started raising slogans, the police personnel detained them. The agitators were bundled into buses and taken to a police station. Four days ago, a similar protest was held by the Left-affiliated organisations in front of the Israel Embassy in New Delhi. The protestors were detained by the police.
Last week, dozens of people assembled at Jantar Mantar for the protest but were detained and hurdled in buses over not having permission to hold the demonstration. On October 7, Hamas militants fired thousands of rockets and sent fighters -- through land, air and sea -- into Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip--killing hundreds of people and kidnapping many.
Since then Israel has been responding to that attack with a massive bombardment of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “crush and destroy” Hamas. Palestinians say civilians are paying the price in strikes on Gaza, a small coastal strip of land (140 square miles) with 2.3 million residents, blockaded for more than 15 years.