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Thousands in Morocco call for end to Gaza war

Thousands in Morocco call for end to Gaza war
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Moroccans chant slogans and wave the Palestinian flag during a march to express their solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Rabat on July 19, 2025. (AFP)
Moroccans chant slogans and wave the Palestinian flag during a march to express their solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Rabat on July 19, 2025. (AFP)
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Moroccans chant slogans and wave the Palestinian flag during a march to express their solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Rabat on July 19, 2025. (AFP)
Thousands in Morocco call for end to Gaza war
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A Moroccan waves the Palestinian flag during a march to express their solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Rabat on July 19, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 21 July 2025

Thousands in Morocco call for end to Gaza war

Thousands in Morocco call for end to Gaza war
  • Morocco and Israel in 2020 signed a US-brokered normalization deal, which has increasingly come under attack in the North African kingdom as the war in Gaza rages into its 22nd month

RABAT: Tens of thousands of Moroccans demonstrated Sunday in the capital Rabat against the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, calling for the reversal of the kingdom’s normalization deal with Israel.
Protesters gathered in the city center, brandishing Palestinian flags and placards calling for the free flow of aid to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“It’s a disgrace, Gaza is under fire,” “Lift the blockade,” “Morocco, Palestine, one people” and “no to normalization,” chanted the demonstrators.
They had gathered at the call of various organizations, including a coalition bringing together the Islamist movement Al-Adl Wal-Ihssane and left-wing parties.




Moroccans wave Palestinian flags during a march to express their solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Rabat on July 19, 2025. (AFP)

The war in Gaza, sparked by militant group Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people who live in the coastal territory.
Most people have been displaced at least once by the fighting, and doctors and aid agencies say they were seeing the physical and mental health effects of 21 months of war, including more acute malnutrition.
“Palestinians are being starved and killed before the eyes of the whole world,” said Jamal Behar, one of the demonstrators in Rabat on Sunday.
“It is our duty to denounce this dramatic, unbearable situation.”
Morocco and Israel in 2020 signed a US-brokered normalization deal, which has increasingly come under attack in the North African kingdom as the war in Gaza rages into its 22nd month.


Syrian Foreign Ministry reinstates 21 diplomats who had defected during Assad’s regime

Syrian Foreign Ministry reinstates 21 diplomats who had defected during Assad’s regime
Updated 18 sec ago

Syrian Foreign Ministry reinstates 21 diplomats who had defected during Assad’s regime

Syrian Foreign Ministry reinstates 21 diplomats who had defected during Assad’s regime
  • Diplomats met minister this week in Damascus, Al-Shaibani signed agreement
  • Those returning will help staff with their extensive experience

LONDON: Asaad Al-Shaibani, the Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, has reinstated 21 diplomats who had defected from the former Bashar Assad regime in protest at its brutal crackdown on civilians during the civil war.

Al-Shaibani met the diplomats this week at the ministry’s headquarters in Damascus and signed an agreement to reinstate them to the ministry’s staff.

He acknowledged the efforts of the diplomats in exposing the crimes of the Assad regime and praised their commitment to supporting the people of the Syrian Arab Republic and their just cause, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.

He added that the decision to reinstate the 21 diplomats was a significant move toward restoring national competencies.

Yasser Al-Jundi, the director of the Diplomatic Institute at the ministry, told SANA that the diplomats possessed “extensive experience in diplomatic work both before and after the revolution,” which would benefit new staff.

Diplomat Hussein Al-Sabbagh said that “the dissident diplomats have been waiting for this day since liberation (and the fall of Assad) to support diplomatic work in accordance with Syria’s new foreign policy.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates issued a statement in May requesting that dissenting diplomats contact the ministry to update their information in preparation for a return to the ministry’s staff.