Pro-Palestinian protests at University of Helsinki enter 2nd month

By Lejla Biogradlija

ANKARA (AA) – Pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Helsinki in the Finnish capital entered their second month on Sunday.

Launched by students in May, the rallies have persisted despite the university administration's decision to suspend student exchange agreements with Israeli universities.

Students continue to express solidarity with Gaza at an encampment established in front of main building.

The university said its board and rector are shocked by the civilian victims of the Israel-Hamas war and called on the parties involved to prevent genocide in accordance with the decisions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Netherlands.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year which killed some 1,200 people.

More than 36,400 Palestinians have been since been killed in a Israeli offensive on the enclave, most of them women and children, with over 82,600 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid Israel's crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at ICJ, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war.

*Writing by Alperen Aktas from Istanbul