Malawians have marched in Blantyre in solidarity with Palestine following Israel’s war on Gaza which has led to the death of over 11,000 people including more than 4,000 children in Palestine.
Hundreds of people, the majority of them Muslims, joined the march in Blantyre today, carrying placards and flags in support of Palestine.
“Free Palestine, free Gaza. We stand with Palestine, we want peace in Gaza,” the marchers said.
Speaking to journalists, chairperson of the organizing committee, Sheikh Muslim Abbas Vinjenje, said the solidarity march was aimed to encourage all stakeholders to ensure that there is peace in Palestine and hold Israel leaders accountable for loss of lives.
Vinjenje who is also Secretary General of Ulama Council – Malawi, said they are concerned with what Israel is doing in Palestine which he said is against international peace laws and continued by calling all relevant organizations to stop Israel from “killing people”.
“The main message was to encourage all organizations, civil rights organizations, governments, as well as all people who have got power to change, to advise or to take part in ensuring peace in Palestine and take part in advising Israel to stop killing innocent people, more especially, women, children as well as elderly.
“This war has affected world peace because we have seen that Israel has committed crimes, which we call war crimes, genocide and the likes, which is against Geneva Convention as well as human rights chatters that protect civilians, children, women as well as elderly. So, you can see that, what Israel is doing right now in Palestine, more especially in Gaza, it is affecting all of these organizations as if it is not functioning and we are also noticing in the same scenario that the leaders of these organizations are working in a biased situation whereby Israel is not taken accountable for whatever it is doing to the Palestinian people,” said Vinjenje.
He added that the main expectation is for ceasefire in Palestine and that Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, should be taken to International Criminal Court to be investigated for war crimes and genocide.
‘Netanyahu and his army command, as well as the first minister have conducted genocide to the people of Gaza, to the people of Palestine. If this objective is not achieved, we will still go on the road, we will still demonstrate until Palestine becomes free,” said Vinjenje.
Israel launched the attack on Gaza las month, saying it wanted to fight Hamas, the Islamist militant group which controls Gaza, after fighters crossed into Israel on October 7.
The current war started after Hamas fighters attacked towns where they killed civilians and took hostages. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken captive.
The war has affected Gaza’s entire population of 2.3 million and Gaza health officials say more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict.
