Solidarity with Aleppo: from Homs to Gaza

Demonstrations were held across the Arab world this weekend, to remember the more than 250 people killed during a week of heavy Syrian regime and Russian bombing in Aleppo.

Protesters in Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt - as well as other cities in Syria - held placards as a sign of solidarity with the victims of air raids on rebel-held eastern Aleppo.

On Sunday, dozens of Lebanese and Syrian activists staged a sit-in outside the offices for the UN Social Commission for West Asia - which also covers Syria - to condemn the regime's latest aerial assault.

Banners held by demonstrators called for international protection of Aleppo. Some held placards saying "Assad burns Aleppo", while others sang songs about the Syrian revolution.

In Egypt, despite a ban on public protests, many turned out on the streets for the people of Aleppo.

On Sunday night in Giza, demonstrators took to the street holding the flag adopted by theh Syrian opposition and made the four-finger gesture to commemorate the Rabaa massacre, when police killed over 1,000 protesters in Egypt.

Students in Misr and Alexandria universities held prayers and vigils commemorating more than 250 civilians killed in Aleppo during the last week.

— bonnie kipperman (@bonniekipperman) April 30, 2016 " style="color:#fff;" class="twitter-post-link" target="_blank">Twitter Post Students in University of Science and Technology #Egypt Solidarity with #Aleppo today حلب_تحترق# #AleppoIsBurning pic.twitter.com/Jw9fC33TCH — bonnie kipperman (@bonniekipperman) April 30, 2016 ">

In Gaza a protest was called in "solidarity with the people of Aleppo and every single Syrian living under airstrikes". 

The protest took place outside the UN Headquarters in Gaza against the "silence of the United Nation about what happen in Aleppo".

"The world's population left the city of Aleppo on their own to face devestating raids which take the lives of children, women and the elderly every hour amid silence from the international community," activist Mahmoud Shada told The New Arab.

"No one feels the suffering of Syrians as deeply as the residents of the Gaza Strip who have suffered three Israeli wars which destroyed everything, and we have been under the Israeli-imposed siege on the Gaza strip for nearly a decade."

	A protest in Gaza in solidarity with Aleppo [The New Arab]

Despite many in the Palestinian Authority - including President Mahmoud Abbas - broadly supporting the Syrian regime, the people of Ramallah called for a silent vigil to commemorate victims of the air raids.

The invitation was addressed to "every Palestinian who would not accept injustice indiscriminate killing".

Residents in the remaining opposition-held district of Homs - besieged al-Waer - also held protests for the people of Aleppo.

"Although we are in pain and hunger, we will stand with you Aleppo," read banners from the demonstrations.