TEHRAN- Israel’s weekend brutal attack on a tent camp in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah has sparked global outrage and anti-war protests across the world.

Dozens of civilians, most of them women and children, lost their lives after an Israeli airstrike hit the camp on Sunday. It ignited fires that spread quickly through tents and makeshift accommodation

The gruesome scene of scorched tents, burning bodies and dismembered children has left the international community reeling in shock and horror.

Calls are growing to hold the Israeli regime accountable for perpetrating the heinous attack. 

On Monday, anti-war protesters hit the cities across the world to vent their anger at Israel’s savage crimes. 

Anti-war rallies in US 

In the United States, people staged rallies in different cities including Washington DC and New York condemning the Israeli deadly strike on Rafah. 

Protest organizers and demonstrators in the American capital blasted the White House for using US taxpayer money to feed Israel’s war machine.

In New York, protesters chanted slogans such as "Resistance is justified when people are occupied."

The United States is accused of complicity in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza which has claimed the lives of more than 36,000 Palestinians since October 7.

Washington has rejected growing calls to use its powerful leverage at the UN Security Council to pressure Israel to end the Gaza onslaught. It has also dismissed demands for attaching conditions to huge military supplies for the regime. 

Paris protest

In the French capital, protesters gathered near the Israeli embassy. 

“It is a massacre too many,” said François Rippe of the Association France-Palestine Solidarity group that organized the protest. 

He took a jab at the French government for its inaction towards Israel’s brutal strike on the tent camp in Rafah. 

“They start a fire in a camp for displaced, they burn people and we (France) don’t even summon the Israeli ambassador to ask for an account. It is just not acceptable,” Rippe said. 

Protesters also chanted slogans like, “We are all Gaza children,” and “Free Gaza”. 

Others held a banner showing French President Emmanuel Macron, US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the slogan “It is humanity they are assassinating”.

British police beat protesters 

Similar protests were held in Britain. In Manchester, police violently attacked demonstrators to disperse them.

According to a coalition of student activists, the demonstrators were beaten with batons. 

“We utterly denounce this unwarranted escalation by GMP. The police have yet again proven that they are an oppressive and violent force that aims to silence us whilst defending the right of a state to commit genocide,” Manchester Leftist Action wrote on X. 

Britain, like the United States, has turned a blind eye to calls to stop arming Israel. 

Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in April that arms sales to Israel by British companies will not stop.

Before his remarks, three former senior UK judges joined more than 600 members of the British legal profession urging the government to stop arms sales to Israel, saying it

could make London complicit in the regime’s war of genocide in Gaza. 

Madrid march 

In the Spanish capital, protesters outside the Foreign Ministry called for imposing sanctions on Israel. In Barcelona, people also gathered at the European Commission Headquarters echoing the same call. 

Anti-war protests erupted in other countries, such as the Netherlands, Australia, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia. 

In addition to global protests, condemnation continues to pour in over Israel’s horrific attack in Rafah. 

OIC slams “heinous massacre”

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned the Israeli strike as a “heinous massacre”. 

“The Secretary-General held the Israeli occupation accountable for the consequences of its crimes, terrorist practices, and brutal attacks against the Palestinian people, which are inconsistent with all human values,” OIC, representing 57 member states, said in a statement, according to Al Jazeera. 

“The OIC renewed its call on the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to assume its responsibilities in compelling Israel, to implement the orders of the International Court of Justice to stop this Israeli aggression immediately,” the statement added. 

On Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a dramatic ruling ordering Israel to "immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah". Israel, however, ignored the order and continued its deadly strikes.