HAVANA, (Reuters) â Tens of thousands of Cubans yesterday marched in front of the U.S. embassy in Havana charging Israel was committing âgenocideâ against Palestinians in Gaza.
The march, led by Presi-dent Miguel Diaz-Canel, and which moved along Havanaâs seaside drive, the Malecon where the U.S. diplomatic headquarters is located, was the first of its kind in more than a decade.
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, now deceas-ed, was famous for staging similar, but much larger demonstrations to protest U.S. sanctions and meddling in Cuban affairs.
The crowd, sporting Palestinian flags and banners, chanted âfree, free Palestine, Israel is genocideâ and âup with Pales-tinian freedomâ as it marched by the building and rallied nearby.
Communist-run Cuba has been a strong backer of the Palestinian cause for decades and has trained more than 200 Palestinian doctors. It does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
âWe are here and it is no coincidence that we have marched in front of the United States embassy,â Anet RodrĂguez, a university professor, said.
âThe United States is one of the most responsible for supporting the State of Israel ⊠it is supporting a massacre of the Palestini-ans and international laws are being violated,â she said.
Israel launched its invasion of Gaza after gunmen from Palestinian Islamist group Hamas burst across the border fence, killing 1,200 people and seizing about 240 hostages on Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, some 14,800 Gazans have been killed by Israeli bombardment, around 40% of them children, according to Palestinian health authorities.