By Sophie Hares
LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Thousands of demonstrators poured
onto the streets of major European cities on Sunday to protest
for a second day against Israel's assault on Gaza, but there was
no repeat of Saturday's widespread violent clashes with police.
Around 30,000 people demonstrated in Brussels, some carrying
models of bloodied Gaza children, while more than 1,000 formed a
human chain to march through Rome as Italy's defence minister
warned Muslims against provocative prayers in public squares.
"Enough with the bombs, enough with the massacre, enough
with the Gaza occupation, enough with the destruction of lives
and houses and enough with the death of children," said Chiara
Palladini, a demonstrator in Rome.
Smaller numbers of supporters of Israel also made their
voices heard, in London, Manchester and Prague. In Dublin they
gathered waving Israeli flags and singing psalms in lashing
rain, separated by a police barricade from a rival
pro-Palestinian rally.
"Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and has a
right to defend itself," said Annette Horseman, 43, from Dublin.
Gilad Handler, 25, an Israeli high-tech worker living in
Dublin, said the high number of Palestinian civilian casualties
was difficult for Israelis.
"We don't want war with Gaza," he said. "But it's enough
getting years of rocket barrages on our heads from there."
Israeli forces edged into Gaza City on Sunday, killing at
least 29 Palestinians on the 16th day of the offensive, as
fighting raged in defiance of international ceasefire calls.
The Palestinian death toll since Israel's offensive began
stands at 874, many of them civilians, Gaza medical officials
said. Israel says thirteen Israelis -- three civilians hit by
rocket fire and 10 soldiers -- have been killed.
Israel wants a halt to rocket attacks and arrangements to
ensure that Hamas cannot rearm through tunnels under the
Egypt-Gaza border.
PEACEFUL RALLIES
A London gathering of 4,000 pro-Israel demonstrators, some
carrying Israeli flags and placards saying "End Hamas Terror!",
passed off without a repeat of Saturday's violent scenes when
about 20,000 Palestinian supporters confronted riot police.
Thousands of demonstrators including high-profile actors and
politicians marched peacefully through Madrid demanding
increased international action against Israel's offensive, some
chanting "We are all Palestinians".
The Israeli embassy in the Spanish capital issued a
statement asking why demonstrators there had never protested
against aggression by Hamas and calling recent anti-Israel
rallies "a double standard."
In Italy, where thousands marched in Naples and Genoa to
demand an end to violence in Gaza, Defence Minister Ignazio La
Russa said he did not oppose protests but called public Muslim
prayers by demonstrators a challenge to peace.
On Saturday, thousands of Muslims knelt in prayer before
Milan's central train station. A week ago Muslims held prayers
in front of the city centre cathedral, angering right-wing
politicians in the overwhelmingly Catholic country.
"I say enough of the provocations of Islamists in Milan," La
Russa, from the right-wing National Alliance, told Il Giornale
newspaper on Sunday. "In Milan, a legitimate demonstration ended
in a deliberately provocative mosque under the open sky."
While Sunday's protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, a
Reuters photographer in Brussels reported windows had been
smashed and a car overturned and set alight in the area where
the city's anti-Israel march had ended.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul, Frank Prenesti, Deepa Babington,
Jan Lopatka, Pete Harrison, Elena Massa, Tracy Rucinski; editing
by Tim Pearce)
