A massive protest unfolded in Rabat on Sunday as tens of thousands of Moroccans filled the streets to express outrage over Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip, according to The Associated Press.
The demonstration, one of the largest Morocco has seen in recent months, also targeted US policy in the region, with anger directed at both current and former American presidents.
Protesters carried signs depicting US President Donald Trump beside images of Palestinian Arab families displaced by the conflict, and waved posters honoring Hamas leaders eliminated in Israeli strikes.
Some demonstrators trampled Israeli flags and carried banners denouncing the Israeli government, US foreign policy, and Moroccan normalization with Israel, according to AP.
Organizers of the protest accused Israel of committing atrocities and warned that anger in the region would continue to mount as the war persists.
Protests against Israel's war in Gaza have repeatedly drawn thousands of people in Morocco since the conflict began on October 7, 2023.
A protest in December of 2023 saw thousands staging a march in Rabat, demanding an end to Morocco's ties with Israel.
In July, thousands of Moroccans demonstrated in the northern city of Tangier in support of the Palestinian Arab people and against Morocco's ties with Israel.
Ahead of the first anniversary of the massacre, tens of thousands of Moroccans protested in Rabat in support of Palestinian Arabs and against normalization of ties with Israel.
Demonstrators waved Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flags and brandished signs denouncing the kingdom's 2020 normalization with Israel, amid chants of "Resistance does not die" and "The people want an end to normalization".
Morocco renewed its official relations with Israel amid a string of normalization deals between Israel and Arab countries, brokered by the Trump administration in late 2020.
Although Morocco and Israel have not yet completed the process of setting up full embassies in each other's countries as they agreed, they have moved closer together, signing a defense cooperation pact, among other things.
Morocco has officially denounced what it said were "flagrant violations of the provisions of international law" by Israel in its war against Hamas, but has not given any indication that normalization with Israel would be undone.
