Dozens of protesters in Belfast have screamed in solidarity with Palestinians following Sunday’s horrific strike in Rafah.
A rally on Monday saw protesters hold a ‘collective scream’ outside the headquarters of BBC Northern Ireland in Belfast’s Ormeau Avenue.
The gathering was held to protest at the deaths of over 45 people, including children, at a refugee camp in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought sanctuary following Israel’s invasion.
Organised by the Belfast-based Mothers Against Genocide group, the rally location was chosen to highlight the group’s concerns over BBC coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza.
In a social media post urging people to attend the ‘emergency rally’, a spokesperson for the group said: “Rafah is under attack and the western world remains silent.
“They aren’t listening to the screams coming out of Rafah. They are ignoring our pleas for sanctions.”
They added: “We demand action! We demand sanctions! We demand truth! We demand an end to this genocide!”
The rally also saw participants holding effigies of dead children wrapped in bloody shrouds, to highlight the killing of children in Israeli strikes.
A BBC spokesperson said it was “committed to reporting the Israel-Gaza war impartially, with no agenda and to the highest standards of journalism”.
“Our own audience research shows that BBC News is considered the most impartial provider for coverage of the conflict,” they said.
“Research by (polling company) More in Common echoes this and shows the highest proportion of people in Britain sees the BBC as neutral.”
“On background, the BBC has covered the humanitarian situation in Gaza and Rafah extensively.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deaths of Palestinian civilians in the Rafah strike was a “tragic mistake”, but the attack has sparked a wave of condemnation against Israel, which last Friday had been ordered by the International Court of Justice to halt it’s military offensive in Rafah.
