Students at Paris' Sorbonne University show support for Palestine

By Seyma Uzundere

PARIS (AA) — Hundreds of students at Sorbonne University in Paris held a demonstration Monday, demanding an end to Israel's attacks on Palestine.

Staging a sit-in and chanting slogans in front of the university building, the students unfurled a Palestinian flag that stretched for meters during the protest they held in front of one of France's leading universities.

They also set up an encampment with tents on the campus.

Heavy security measures were taken in front of the university, with police surrounding the area where the students were protesting.

Chanting slogans such as "Gaza, Gaza Sorbonne stands with you" and "Free Palestine," clashes occasionally broke out between the students and police.

An earlier pro-Palestine student demonstration at the university was held last week a building where the country's President Emmanuel Macron was delivering a speech during his visit to the university.

Nearby, pro-Palestinian demonstrations are also taking place at Sciences Po, another prestigious Paris university.

Nearly 34,500 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 77,600 others injured in a deadly Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.