Riot police fired tear gas in Paris on Saturday as tensions rose at a 5,000-strong pro-Palestinian rally that went ahead in defiance of a ban, days after similar rallies ended in violence.
The demonstration against Israel’s Gaza offensive that has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians comes after other protests last weekend in Paris and a suburb town that had also initially been banned descended into chaos.Organisers of the protest had tried going to court to get the ban overturned, but they were unsuccessful and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve warned that they would be held “responsible for any unrest... And liable to penal sanctions.”
According to estimates, about 5,000 people turned up at Place de la Republique in central Paris, brandishing Palestinian flags and the red banners of the far-left New Anticapitalist Party that had called on people to defy the ban.After an initial peaceful start, police began firing tear gas after some hooded protesters threw cans and other objects at them, and several journalists were roughed up.